MORNING BID EUROPE-Talking peace on Syria, Yemen

* 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, Dec 15 (Reuters) - U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Kerry will use talks in Moscow on Tuesday to try and narrow differences over the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ahead of a third round of talks of world powers tentatively set for Friday in New York. They're also expected to talk about Ukraine and Turkey.

Yemen's civil war foes are expected to launch their most serious peace efforts so far at U.N.-mediated talks in Switzerland starting today. The nine-month-old conflict between a Saudi-led Arab alliance and the Iranian-allied Houthis has outlasted two earlier U.N. attempts at peace-making, caused one of the world's worst humanitarian crises and pushed Yemen towards total chaos. The rise of Islamic State amid the battlefield stalemate is giving a new urgency to these talks.

Germany's closely watched ZEW investor morale reading is out at 1000 gmt. The December number is expected to rise further after snapping a seven-month run of falls in November. A rise in private consumption and higher state spending on refugees looks to be outweighing weakness in foreign trade, helping Europe's biggest economy to grow at a modest if not spectacular pace.

MARKETS (AT 0745 GMT)

There was some respite overnight from the pretty bleak pre-Fed markets of the past week, with Brent crude steadying after coming within a hair's breadth of the 2008 low of $36.20. This helped Wall Street claw back early losses to end in the black. Little has changed as we await the FOMC decision tomorrow night, however. Brent is drifting back lower again this morning at around $37.60, Asia bourses are lower or at best flat, China's yuan continues to weaken to more than four-year lows even as euro/dollar pushes higher above $1.10 in a pro-euro 'risk off' trade and as traders eye a post-Fed dollar retreat. The toxic combination of plunging oil and the prospect of a U.S. rate rise has caused some extreme stress in the corporate junk bond market over the past week, with some high-profile funds in that space forced to halt redemptions as yields spreads have ballooned. More generally, the day-to-day volatility of markets is increasing, with eurostocks swinging violently on Monday from being up 1 pct to being down 1 pct within an hour of trade.

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

- European corp events: Prada (Other OTC: PRDSF - news) earnings, Telecom Italia AGM, BMW (Swiss: BMW.SW - news) product presentation

- Sweden, Hungary, Croatia rate decisions

- UK/Spain Nov inflation

- German Dec ZEW investor survey

- Spain Q3 employment

- Norway Nov trade balance

- Turkey Sept jobless, Nov budget balance

- Finland Oct GDP

- Israel, Nigeria Nov inflation

- US Nov CPI inflation, Oct TIC data (Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)