Europe's financial markets are steady early in the day as European Union leaders prepare for more talks on the EU budget and Americans prepare for their "Black Friday" shopping trips. This session, the focus is likely to be on the euro zone's key business surveys--from Germany's Ifo Institute and France's INSEE--and the Belgian leading indicator.
Ahead of the stock markets' opening, Capital Spreads is calling the FTSE 100 up four at 5795, the DAX up nine at 7254 and the CAC-40 up five at 3503. The euro is mostly a little firmer, German Bund futures are flat, crude oil futures are down and the gold price is stable.
"While EU leaders debate and argue over a new budget plan for 2014 to 2020, which is likely to take some time and probably spill over into next year, the economic data across Europe continues to disappoint and markets are likely to focus their attention in particular on the latest German November Ifo business climate survey, which is expected to decline for the seventh month in a row from 100 to 99.60, and to its lowest level in nearly three years," wrote Michael Hewson, senior market analyst at CMC Markets, in a note to clients.
Earlier, German economic growth in the third quarter was confirmed at 0.2% quarter-on-quarter, unchanged from the first estimate.
Write to Martin Essex at martin.essex@dowjones.com or on Twitter @MartinEssexDJN
