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Good Morning Europe

The story remains the same for equity investors who are now focused on the long collapse of oil prices above all else.

Crude benchmarks slide has now left many producers breakeven prices and fracking costs far behind.  Thereve been no signs of output curbs from OPEC, so that slide seems set to continue Wednesday.

Well get some European consumer price data later, with weakness only likely to make calls for sovereign Quantitative Easing from the European Central Bank louder. Anticipation of sovereign bond buying has seen bund yields fade almost as fast as oil.  Ten year German debt now yields a miserly 0.44%.

However, employment numbers, also due later, are set to highlight the relative resilience of Europes largest economy, where QE remains extremely controversial.

Market Snapshot. U.S. markets  (Tuesday close) DJIA down 0.7%, Nasdaq down 1.3%, S&P 500 down 0.9%. Nikkei (Wednesday close) flat. Brent crude down 61 cents at $50.49, Nymex crude down 52 cents at $47.41. Gold down $6.70 at $1212.60. EUR/USD $1.1879, USD/JPY ¥118.92. 10 year Treasury yield 1.95%, Bund 0.44%, Gilt 1.56%.

Watch For. German labor report, Italian unemployment, consumer price levels. European Union flash estimate CPI. Out of the U.S. well get the ADP employment report and the weekly mortgage applications roundup, along with Decembers trade data.

What you may have missed on MoneyBeat:  

Bill Gross on 2015: ‘The Good Times Are Over’ :  The capital markets have gotten off to a brutal start in 2015. You may, in fact, be starting to wonder if the good times are over.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management on Oil, the ECB and Goldfish :  It has been a lively start to the year, and the European Central Bank’s meeting is still over two weeks away. Iain Lindsay, a fixed-income portfolio manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, stopped by MoneyBeat in London to chat about his views on how the year is likely to shape up.

Espírito Santo’s U.K. Arm Falls Foul of Regulator Over Mass Exits :  The U.K. financial regulator has used its powers to fine an investment bank for violating listing rules for the first time. And the fine recipient? The U.K. legal entity of collapsed Portuguese lender Banco Espírito Santo.

5 Things to Know About the Lawsuit at London’s Charterhouse Capital :  Charterhouse Capital Partners LLP is among London’s oldest and most self-effacing private-equity firms. Very little was known about the firm until a lawsuit by a former partner revealed its inner workings. Here are five things disclosed by the court documents, as explained in a Wall Street Journal page-one article.

U.S. Equities Bob To the Top Of Messy Markets :  Stocks have taken a battering lately, but trying to get a read on the relative significance of the recent moves isn’t straight forward.

Five Charts: Global Bond Yields Are Tanking Amid Disinflation Fears :  Bond yields around the world are hitting historic lows Tuesday. Leading the charge is Europe. Here’s how it looks in five charts.

It’s Getting Ugly for Sterling Out There :  All eyes are on the sliding euro, but sterling is beating it hands-down in the ugly stakes.

 Overnight Action:

Nervous Investors Flee to Treasurys . Yields on government bonds in the U.S. Germany and Japan plunged Tuesday as anxiety over global growth intensified and investors sought havens from widening financial-market turmoil.

Deep Debt Keeps Oil Firms Pumping : American oil and gas companies have gone heavily into debt during the energy boom to almost $200 billion. And their need to service that debt helps explain why U.S. producers plan to continue pumping oil.

Stake in European Hedge-Fund Firm Is for Sale : A piece of one of Europe’s largest hedge-fund firms, Brevan Howard Asset Management, is on the block.