LIVE MARKETS-Will trade war calm survive NFPs?

* European stocks give up early gains

* U.S. imposes tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports

* U.S. NFPs in focus

LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity

markets brought to you by Reuters stocks reporters and anchored today by Julien Ponthus. Reach

him on Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves:

julien.ponthus.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

WILL TRADE WAR CALM SURVIVE NFPS? (1121 GMT)

However you want to look at it, it's safe to say that all hell didn't break loose when what

pundits have called the official start of the trade war began this morning.

European markets have now given up some gains but are still close to flat while U.S. futures

are now only gently in negative territory, down 0.3 percent at the most for the Dow.

Question is, can the incoming U.S. jobs data change the trend of this session?

"For now, traders are firmly focused on the US NFP and it would make or break the day for

them," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets.

"While the imposition of US tariffs on Chinese imports was already priced in by markets,

traders are now focusing their attention on US NFP numbers later today," Carlo Alberto De Casa,

chief analyst at ActivTrades said in a comment about the euro/dollar.

Here's your midday snapshot:

(Julien Ponthus)

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SELL THE RUMOUR, BUY THE NEWS (0710 GMT)

"We're in a typical 'buy the rumour, sell the news" Stephane Barbier de la Serre, strategist

at Makor Capital Markets just told us as European shares opened in the black despite the

China/U.S. trade dispute moving towards a trade war.

His take is that at the moment, investors still want to believe that the confrontation with

China is a negotiating posture by U.S. President Donald Trump and that a worst-case scenario is

not likely to materialise.

Here's your opening snapshot:

(Julien Ponthus)

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TRADE WAR RALLY? SERIOUSLY? (0605 GMT)

Futures for European futures are clearly up, about 0.6 percent for the bourses of Frankfurt,

Paris or London and that's clearly not something that was expected with the trade war narrative

building up further today.

"Given that trade tariffs are due to kick in today, we would have expected to see more

anxiety in the markets", writes Jasper Lawler, head of research at LCG, noting a positive

session on Wall Street, higher shares in Asia and that Europe is pointing to an "upbeat Friday".

Indeed, it's hard to believe a further escalation but as we speak Chinese equities are up

quite strongly!

After earlier falls, the benchmark CSI300 Index is up 1.2 percent and the

Shanghai Composite Index is rising 0.9 percent.

U.S. futures are up too and it's hard to see where the good news is. As a reminder, U.S.

tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports just took effect and Beijing has vowed to respond.

As far as we know, the world's two biggest economies are still facing a possible all-out

trade conflict.

(Julien Ponthus)

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EUROPEAN BOURSES SEEN RISING AS TRADE WAR ENTERS NEW PHASE (0525 GMT)

European bourses are expected to rise at the open just after U.S. tariffs on $34 billion in

Chinese imports took effect as a deadline passed on Friday.

With Beijing having vowed to respond immediately in kind, it seems the worse-case scenario

of an all-out trade conflict feared by investors is materialising fast.

While one could have expected markets to fall, financial spreadbetters expect London's FTSE

to open 26 points higher, Frankfurt's DAX up 60 points and Paris' CAC to rise 32 points.

(Julien Ponthus)

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