LIVE MARKETS-Unwind of short volatility plays shakes market

* European shares seen plummeting at the open

* Futures on DAX, CAC, FTSE down around 4 percent

* Wall Street suffered its biggest decline since 2011

Feb 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 Danilo Masoni. Reach him on

Messenger to share your thoughts on market moves: danilo.masoni.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net

UNWIND OF SHORT VOLATILITY PLAYS SHAKES MARKET (0739 GMT)

With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) the VIX shooting up in U.S. trading, its biggest one-day jump in more than two

years, investors are rushing to unwind big positions in ETF products shorting the VIX and take

out options protecting themselves against a further slide in stocks.

Our colleagues in New York reported overall VIX options volume hit 3.6 million contracts, or

about three times the daily average.

The VelocityShares Inverse VIX short-term ETN sank 86 percent and the ProShares

Short VIX short-term futures ETF fell nearly 80 percent. Investors said the inverse ETF

products may be liquidated after suffering these heavy losses.

Credit Suisse (IOB: 0QP5.IL - news) , the issuer of the VelocityShares inverse ETF, is seen down as much

as 10 percent at the open, according to a trader.

The UBS VelocityShares VSTOXX inverse ETF, which shorts the European volatility

gauge, plunged 21 percent yesterday in New York.

(Helen Reid)

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"WE'RE IN UNCHARTED WATERS" (0729 GMT)

As ve've seen European stock futures are pointing to heavy losses at the open and investors

are trying to make sense about what could come next, as inflation worries have pushed Wall

Street's volatility index to its highest since August 2015.

"Price action is clearly driven by technical factors, tied to a brutal awakening of stock

volatiltity," said Alessandro Balsotti, head of asset management at JCI Capital Ltd.

"We are undoubtedly in uncharted waters," he adds.

"The first instinct as an asset allocator is to take advantage of this dip to add equity

exposure. Also to exploit the decline in yields to further reduce duration... Ultimately I think

the robust economic phase will be able to withstand the bloodshed on volatility. The real danger

for 2018 remains that the transition from a deflationary mentality to an inflationary one

will... not be simple at all for the market and investors," he said.

(Danilo Masoni)

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EUROPEAN STOCK FUTURES PLUMMET (0710 GMT)

European equity index futures have opened down sharply confirming earlier indications from

financial spreadbetters for declines of around 4 percent.

Here's your snapshot:

(Danilo Masoni)

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EARLY MORNING EUROPEAN HEADLINE ROUND-UP (0644 GMT)

Corporate news is unlikely to have much impact today as investors prepare for broad sell-off

at the open that could see top European stock benchmarks fall as much as 5 percent. Anyway here

are the main headlines we've seen this morning:

BNP Paribas Q4 profits dip, yet bank signals more confidence on 2020 targets

EXCLUSIVE-British wind project draws investment heavyweights - sources

Bayer (IOB: 0P6S.IL - news) offers to sell businesses to win EU approval for Monsanto (Hamburg: 1132157.HM - news) deal

Swedbank Q4 net profit tops forecast

Activist Elliott steps up calls for BHP to scrap dual listing

Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) supplier AMS (IOB: 0QWC.IL - news) 's Q4 profit soars thanks to sensor technology

Banks in Britain and U.S. ban Bitcoin buying with credit cards

Infrastructure fund GIP offers 1.9 bln euros to buy railway group Italo

Terra Firma kicks off sale of Italian solar assets - sources

MEDIA-Accor (EUREX: 485822.EX - news) nears sale of stake in real estate arm- FT

BRIEF-Safran To Hold 79.74 Percent Of Zodiac Following Tender Offer - AMF

Brazil's EMS and India's Torrent Pharma vying for Sanofi (LSE: 0O59.L - news) 's generic drugs -sources

Belgian business urges Lufthansa (Xetra: LHAB.DE - news) not to merge Brussels Airlines with Eurowings

Lockheed, Rheinmetall (IOB: 0NI1.IL - news) team up to bid for German helicopter order

Intesa Sanpaolo (Amsterdam: IO6.AS - news) releases results, business plan; announces full conversion of saving shares

(Danilo Masoni)

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MORNING CALL: EUROPEAN SHARES SEEN PLUMMETING AT THE OPEN (0614 GMT)

Good morning and welcome to Live Markets.

European shares are set to fall sharply at the open after a rout in global equities deepened

in Asia on Tuesday and Wall Street suffered its biggest decline since 2011 as inflation worries

gripped financial markets in a vicious sell-off.

"The weakness has continued in Asia with the Nikkei225 bearing the brunt with its worst fall

since 1990, and is set to spill over once again today into European trading with another sharply

lower open for European stocks, as nervous investors continue to bail out," said Michael Hewson,

Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK.

Here are your opening calls:

FTSE100 is expected to open 275 points lower at 7,060 -3.7%

DAX is expected to open 682 points lower at 12,005 -5.3%

CAC40 is expected to open 260 points lower at 5,025 -4.9%

(Danilo Masoni)

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(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Helen Reid, Kit Rees and Julien Ponthus)