Morning MoneyBeat Europe: Record Week May Go Quietly, U.S. GDP Could Decide it

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Good Morning Europe

A historic week for stock markets, which has seen record highs for indexes in both Europe and the U.S. is set to bow out with a whimper as investors look to next month and the start of the European Central Bank's quantitative easing program and the U.S. earnings season winds down.

March will also be when China announces official growth targets and markets are looking toward Beijing with hope that some more stimulus measures may be in the offing.

The Nikkei has already set what looks likely to be the tone, closing up just 0.1% after a blockbuster Thursday. Focus will as ever be on Greece as it searches for a deal that can satisfy both eurozone creditors and voters who installed a new government with a strong antiausterity mandate. Germany will vote on Athens' reform proposals Friday.

There is also plenty of inflation data around, but the second look at fourth-quarter growth out of the U.S. will dominate proceedings. Investors fear there may be a marked scaling back of the 2.6% initial estimate of annualized growth.

Market Snapshot: U.S. markets (Thursday close) DJIA down 0.1%, Nasdaq up 0.4, S&P 500 down 0.2%. Nikkei (Friday close) up 0.1%. Brent crude up 74 cents at $60.79. Gold up 50 cents at $1210.60. EUR/USD at $1.1215, USD/JPY at ¥119.24. 10 year Treasury yield 2.01%, Bund 0.25%, Gilt 1.73%.

Watch For: There is some inflation data due from Europe, producer prices in France and consumer prices in Germany, Spain and Italy, but the day's data meat will come from the U.S. in the form of a second look at fourth-quarter GDP growth for 2014. Pending home sales and the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment roundup are also en route.

What You May Have Missed on MoneyBeat:

Global Oil Price Yardsticks Tell Different Stories: After dropping to close to a six-year low in January, the price of oil has rallied in recent weeks. But how strong is the recovery? Depends on who you ask. Looking at Brent, the global oil benchmark, the price is up more than 30%. But take West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. marker, and the percentage gain is less than half that.

Why Britain Struggles With Its Banks: The U.K. has a love-hate relationship with its banks. The British economy is heavily weighted towards financial services, thanks in no small part to a boom unleashed by Margaret Thatcher’s deregulation of the 1980s. But the sector’s dominance became a serious liability when the Lehman Brothers crisis hit.

RBS Earnings: The Key Takeaways: Royal Bank of Scotland, by its own admission, is paying the price of harboring ambitions to be a global investment bank. Reporting its seventh successive loss, Chief Executive Ross McEwan said the bank needs to take radical measures to make it a sound investment for shareholders.

Standard Chartered Overhaul Gets Temasek Stamp of Approval: Temasek Holdings, the Singapore state investment company, which is the biggest shareholder of Standard Chartered, said Thursday it welcomed Bill Winters as the new chief executive of the emerging markets bank. Temasek, which owns around 18% in Standard Chartered but doesn’t have a board seat, has expressed frustration with the bank in the past.

Research Shake-Up Finds Different Interpretations Across Europe: France and the U.K. have a long history of falling out. The latest source of discord: new rules on investment research. Europe’s securities regulator, the European Securities and Markets Authority, is proposing new rules aimed at changing the way professional investment managers pay for analysts’ research. But financial regulators on either side of the Channel are interpreting the rules differently, and both are refusing to bend.

The Latest Inversion? Cyberonics Moves to U.K. With M&A: The Treasury Department may have cast a chill on the inversion craze, but it looks like another one was just inked.

And From The Wall Street Journal:

J.P. Morgan Emerges as CEO Breeding Ground: Bill Winters, a former deputy to chief James Dimon, is the latest ex-executive to helm a large financial firm, U.K. bank Standard Chartered.

Only More Greek Drama Will Avoid the Drachma: The next hurdle is to find economic policies that will appease both Greeks and the country’s creditors, says Marcus Walker.

FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules: The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to regulate Internet service like a public utility, expanding the U.S. government’s oversight of a once lightly regulated business.

Coca-Cola Sells $9.5 Billion in Euro-Denominated Bonds: Coca-Cola’s bond sale is the largest euro-denominated bond from an U.S. firm on record and the second-largest by any company in the currency.