The FTSE 100 is up a fraction - 0.04pc - at 5643 while the CAC is up 0.3pc to 3249 and the DAX is up 0.2pc to 651.
08.25 A flash appears on Reuters, with Spain's economy minister saying the country is to make additional efforts to achieve its deficit targets.
Spain has what the IMF recently dubbed a "very ambitious 5.3pc of GDP deficit target for 2012!. It was watered down from 4.4pc to 5.3pc in March amid evidence that the initial target was impossible to reach.
07.45 The Bank of England will announce on Thursday whether it has decided to print more money to try and lift Britain's ailing economy. Analysts' money is on another £50bn of quantitative easing (QE), but as Philip Aldrick reports, though pension groups may not be big fans, two would-be pensioners at the Bank of England have not done too badly out of money printing:
Charlie Bean, 59, and Paul Tucker, 54, the two Deputy Governors, saw the value of their final salary pension pots rise by £1.04m and £1.35m respectively last year due mainly to a fall in gilt yields. For Mr Tucker, it meant his pension pot increased by 37pc to £5m, while Mr Bean’s leaped 41pc to £3.56m.
Bank sources said the largest part of the increase was due to the sharp fall in gilt yields, for which the Bank has in the past been proud to take credit. Its own analysis has estimated that QE “depressed gilt yields by around 100 basis points [one percentage point]”, which in turn helped boost economic growth by up to 2pc.
(L-R) Charlie Bean and Paul Tucker saw the value of their final salary pension pots rise
07.40 There are also troubling signs across the pond that the world's largest economy could be slowing more quickly than expected. America’s manufacturing sector contracted for the first time in almost three years last month, raising the spectre of the world’s major economic centres suffering a simultaneous slowdown.
07.32 Just when you thought the eurozone was closer to solving its debt crisis - along comes a party pooper. This time, in the shape of Finland.
Yesterday, Finland pledged to block Brussels’ celebrated plans to allow its new bail-out fund to buy sovereign bonds in the market. Louise Armitstead reports:
A Finnish government report on last week’s milestone European Summit showed that prime minister Jyrki Katainen opposed plans to give the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) the option to buy government bonds in the secondary market. On Monday a spokesman said Finland’s stance was supported by the Netherlands too.
“Finland finds it an inefficient way to stabilise markets,” said a senior Finnish government official told reporters.
A spokesman for the Dutch finance ministry said: “The Prime Minister said on June 29 he is not in favour of buying up bonds. Using the existing instruments to buy up bonds will be expensive and can only be done if there is unanimity (between member states). That means the Netherlands would need to vote in favour."
07.30 Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of the European debt crisis.
