LIVE MARKETS-De-de-escalation

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DE-DE-ESCALATION

The de-escalation trade that had equity markets rallying at the start of the week has faded on Thursday after Trump vowed more strikes on Iran, blindsiding investors who had expected clearer signals of a way out of the conflict.

The pan-European STOXX .STOXX is down 1.1% on Thursday although it's still up over 2.5% in this holiday-shortened week.

Breadth is negative with declining stocks outnumbering advancing stocks by about 3 to 1.

Blue-chip indexes in Frankfurt .GDAXI, Paris .FCHI and London .FTSE are down between 0.4% and 1.5% but all are still heading for decent weekly gains.

Sectors that had rallied at the start of the week - tech .SX8P, miners .SXPP and banks .SX7P - are the biggest laggards, while energy stocks .SXEP are the top gainers as oil prices LCOc1 have surged higher.

Here's your opening snapshot:

(Samuel Indyk)

EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: HEADING FOR AN UGLY OPEN CLICK HERE

PRIME-TIME DISAPPOINTMENT CLICK HERE