LIVE MARKETS-Europe before the bell: Futures tumble on Israel's strike on Iran

Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of markets brought to you by Reuters reporters. You can share your thoughts with us at markets.research@thomsonreuters.com.

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: FUTURES TUMBLE ON ISRAEL'S STRIKE ON IRAN

European shares were set to open sharply lower on Friday after Israel launched widescale strikes against Iran, which pushed the oil price up by 7% and drove a rush out of risk assets.

Euro STOXX 50 futures, STXEc1 which track blue-chip euro zone stocks, dropped 1.7%, FCEc1, FDXc1

Futures on Britain's oil- heavy FTSE .FTSE fell 0.4%.

Airline stocks were taking a hit on the Tradegate platrform, Air France for example, dropping around 5%, while oil stocks did well. BP was up a similar amount, also on that platform.

Defence stocks clearly will be in focus too.

There's not much in terms of major, company-specific, European news, so it'll likely all be about the macro picture and geopolitics, at least to start with.

(Alun John)