European Breakfast Brief

European shares and indexs opened lower this morning despite talk of leveraging the permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to give it more capacity to help struggling euro zone economies. All eyes will be on the German IFO Survey of business confidence due out at 9am. Expectations call for a slight pick-up on the headline Business Climate gauge, snapping four consecutive months of losses. Needless to say, a soft reading may conversely amplify risk aversion further.