Stocks in Europe are expected to follow Asia and Wall Street sharply higher on Tuesday on hopes that European officials are close to agreeing to a plan that will avert a banking crisis and ring-fence Greece’s debt problems.
The FTSE is expected to open 96 points higher on Tuesday to 5185, Germany’s DAX is predicted to be up by 99 points to 5430 and the CAC 40 in France is called 44 points higher at 2904.
On Monday CNBC reported that European Union officials are considering providing seed money for a special-purpose vehicle that would be able to issue bonds and buy up euro zone sovereign debt. CNBC has heard talk of as much as an eight-to-one leverage ratio, depending on how much capital comes from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF). Plans for levering the EFSF were described as well advanced. Watch the video here.
The EFSF is a vehicle financed by euro zone members, created last year, that's designed to provide financial assistance to euro zone states suffering economic difficulty.
European Central Bank governing council member Ewald Nowotny said plans to extend the EFSF were being considered but warned that the scale of the extension may not be as high as some had been hoping for.
In a sign of just how far talks have to go, however, Germany’s finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Monday told German TV that the EFSF was not about to be increased even further ahead of the parliamentary vote on the last proposed increase to the fund.
"No, that is clear...We do not intend to increase it," Schaeuble told broadcaster N-TV.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will today meet her Greek counterpart in Berlin for talks ahead of vote in Athens on a new property tax. Strikes by transport workers are expected in Athens with the Greek finance minister set to hold a news conference at 11:00 CET. CNBC will report live from the talks in Berlin.
In Paris, G20 labor ministers are meeting to try and find ways of boosting jobs growth after the International Labor Organization warned weak growth would mean more people will struggle to find a job. CNBC will be talking to the director general of the ILO on European Closing Bell at 17:00 CET.
CNBC also reports live from Prague in the Czech Republic to discuss one of Eastern Europe’s economic success stories. Guests include Miroslav Singer, the governor of the Czech National Bank.
