MORNING BID EUROPE-"No Minister"

* A look at the day ahead from European Economics and Politics Editor Mark John and EMEA markets editor Mike Dolan. The views expressed are their own.

LONDON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - The sudden resignation of Ivan Rogers, Britain's ambassador to the European Union is the latest jolt in what will be a roller-coaster Brexit process. Depending on where you stand, this is either good riddance to an official who never believed quitting the EU could bring opportunities, or a damaging loss of EU expertise already in short supply among British diplomats. Either way, it shows the gulf between PM Theresa May's government and the senior figures in the civil service who will be required to deliver Brexit. The 1980s satirical sitcom "Yes Minister" famously showed how Whitehall mandarins pretended to agree with their minister and then did the opposite. Rogers' farewell letter to his staff was more "No Minister", urging them to "challenge ill-founded arguments and muddled thinking and ... never be afraid to speak the truth to those in power."

Today's eurozone inflation number due at 1000g will be closely watched after data yesterday showed German prices rising more strongly than expected at 1.7 percent, pushing bond yields higher. The German data also prompted the Ifo institute to pitch in with a call for the ECB to end its bond-buying in March if the eurozone numbers come close to the German ones. That is unlikely -- analysts polled by Reuters expect the year-on-year eurozone figure for December to hit one percent, off the ECB's near-two percent target -- but xx nonetheless hints at how the monetary policy debate may be shifting as the US Fed enters a tightening cycle.

German authorities are due to give an update this afternoon on their investigation into the Berlin truck attack after searches on Tuesday of a refugee centre and an apartment in Berlin. Investigators believe the flat was home to a former flatmate of the attacker Anis Amri and that he was in contact with him shortly before the attack.

MARKETS AT 0755 GMT

While world markets seemed to have picked up where they left off in 2016, there were some peculiar twists on Tuesday as trading volumes crank up slowly into the new year. The dominant picture from the economy is clearly one of manufacturing strength through December in the United States, Europe, China and around the globe, with the notable exception of India due to its demonetization problems and cash shortages. With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) world growth now seen to be tracking annualized rates in excess of 3 percent into yearend - and JPMorgan (LSE: JPIU.L - news) 's global factory PMI at its highest in over two years and implying production growth of up to 3.7 pct - there's some considerable momentum building that will only see any US fiscal loosening as a tailwind from here. Service-sector PMI out later today will be important to confirm the robust manufacturing readings. The other big theme early yesterday was the jump in German inflation close to ECB target levels just under 2 pct, due largely to energy price base effects. But with year-on-year gains in Brent crude now in the region of about 70 percent, this is not going to fade away fast. Euro zone flash inflation readings out later today are expected to show a near doubling of headline inflation rate last month to more than 1 percent. Despite the distorted base effects, long-term euro inflation expectations contained in the five-year, five-year forward rates rose to their highest since Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 2015 yesterday at close to ECB targets of 1.8 pct. German bund yields jumped up to 10 bp on the back of the inflation numbers, even though futures prices are back up again this morning. The peculiar twist in trading, however, was that while stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic (Shanghai: 600558.SS - news) continued to stalk new records yesterday, oil prices turned tail from new 18-month highs amid a fresh surge in the dollar. Brent crude has stabilized since just under $56 as the dollar backed off, but it was a reminder that mounting dollar strength could act as a significant speed bump to new year market trends by reining in commodity prices and US equities. On the other hand, the day's price action bore the hallmarks of still holiday-thinned markets where big intraday moves are often pared back before close. Asian bourses continued the positive mood earlier, with Shanghai and region markets up smartly - outperformed by Tokyo's gains of more than 2 percent as it returned to work for the first time in 2017. Wall St gained almost 1 percent overnight, with tech and telecom stocks such as Verizon (NYSE: VZ - news) , Alphabet (Xetra: ABEA.DE - news) and Facebook (NasdaqGS: FB - news) leading the way. European stock futures are pointing up again too, after a strong session on Tuesday led by banks. The dollar remains buoyant despite its sudden retreat from new highs on Tuesday.

Upcoming events/data/ themes for market reports on Wednesday:

* Europe corp events: Next (Frankfurt: 779551 - news) trading update

* German Dec car sales

* France Dec consumer confidence

* France/Germany/euro zone Dec final services/composite PMIs

* UK Dec final services and all-sector PMI

* Euro zone Dec flash inflation

* BoE (Shenzhen: 000725.SZ - news) mortgage lending data

* Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) sells 20-year syndicated sovereign bond

* Ireland jobless, consumer sentiment, exchequer returns

* Spain Dec jobless

(Editing by x x)