LIVE MARKETS-Europe before the bell: futures in the green

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EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: FUTURES IN THE GREEN

The upbeat tone in global equity markets looks set to continue in Europe on Tuesday, with major index futures trading in the green before the open as they continue to shrug off the upheaval in Venezuela.

Major bourses in the U.S., Japan, South Korea and Taiwan have hit record peaks this week, after Europe's STOXX 600 breached the 600 point mark for the first time on Monday.

Futures on the pan-European benchmark FXXPc1 are up another 0.2% on Tuesday, with Euro STOXX 50 futures STXEc1 up about 0.1%.

Adding to the positive tone, Goldman Sachs equity strategists have slightly upped their targets for the STOXX 600 and Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE, expecting about 5% price return over the next 12 months.

In corporate news, British retailer Next NXT.L lifted its annual profit guidance for the fifth time in the last year after a better-than-expected increase in full-price sales in the lead-up to Christmas.

(Samuel Indyk)

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