Well, the European stock markets have been open for just over an hour now and it has not quite been such a negative first hour of trading as seemed likely earlier this morning. The one laggard though is the FTSE 100, which is still not making very much progress. Elsewhere the CAC 40 and the DAX have managed lift from their earlier session lows. The CAC is close to 7,250 just now and the DAX is pushing up towards and just above 19,100. The move higher in the DAX is being assisted by gains in Siemens energy following better than expected results earlier today. The question right now; is will sellers step in at higher levels again, or will the current rebound extend? Well, the bias remains negative overall, but of course nothing ever moves in a straight line in this game