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EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia's comments on Thursday underscored the hurdles the deal faces in Europe compared with the United States, where regulators are expected to clear the $10.2 billion takeover.

The tie-up, announced last month, would give the merged company a stranglehold on European exchange-traded derivatives, and immediately raised questions over whether competition authorities would block it.

"This is a complex case," Almunia told Reuters on the sidelines of an International Bar Association conference.

"The NYSE Euronext deputy chief executive has recognized this before his meeting with me; it probably will require a deep investigation," he said. "We are waiting for the notification."

NYSE Euronext Deputy Chief Executive Dominique Cerutti met Almunia last month. A NYSE Euronext spokeswoman said the exchanges plan to formally file the deal with regulators in due course. Recent media reports cited Cerutti as suggesting an April filing.

The merged group's dominance of securities such as swaps tied to interest rates or government bonds is expected to face intense regulatory scrutiny, antitrust experts have said.

In New York on Thursday, NYSE Euronext Chief Financial Officer Michael Geltzeiler said the U.S.-based company doesn't believe its Liffe derivatives market competes with Deutsche Boerse's Eurex platform in Europe.

"The rhetoric... was pretty pronounced early on," Geltzeiler said at a conference hosted by Citigroup.

"As we continue to put facts on the table and we're able to meet now that we've announced this transaction properly, with the regulators around the world the dialogues are going well."

HURDLES GLOBALLY

The D.Boerse-NYSE deal is the biggest in a recent rash of planned exchange-industry deals, and it has stoked talk of a brewing counterbid for NYSE Euronext, including possibly from Nasdaq OMX Group.

Geltzeiler said that NYSE Euronext would evaluate a counterbid "as one would expect," if one were to come.

There is a relatively steep 250 million euro ($346-million) termination fee attached to the blockbuster deal, which is the largest in a consolidation wave that includes Singapore Exchange, Australia's ASX and private venues BATS and Chi-X Europe.

As well, London Stock Exchange, Europe's largest stock exchange by value of daily trading, agreed to a takeover deal with Canada's TMX Group on February 9.

Global growth worries are likely to be a key concern as Brent crude topped $116 on Thursday after oil industry infrastructure was bombed by forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Investor sentiment may also be hit by news Moody's cut Spain one notch, raising concerns about the financial health of the euro zone periphery.

Meanwhile, China swung to a surprise trade deficit in February of $7.3 billion, due to the Lunar New Year holiday, but economists said the drop was likely to prove temporary.

HCA's shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the symbol "HCA" (HCA.N) after the company sold more shares than planned in its initial public offering on Wednesday, marking the largest U.S. private-equity backed IPO ever.

Health officials cleared Benlysta a treatment for lupus, discovered by Human Genome Sciences Inc (HGSI.O) and according to Thomson Reuters consensus forecasts, annual global sales might top $3 billion in 2015.

Bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc (AIG.N) is discouraging investors from taking large new positions in the company and has set up a plan to protect tens of billions of dollars in valuable tax assets.

Looking at economic news, at 1330 GMT, investors will eye weekly U.S. jobless claims and U.S. international trade data for January.

At 1900 GMT, the Treasury Department issues its monthly budget for February.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 was down 0.5 percent in morning trade on Thursday, hit by euro zone peripheral debt concerns after Moody's downgraded Spain a notch and weak Chinese import data hurt heavyweight mining stocks.

The Nasdaq was weighed down by a weak outlook from Texas Instruments weighed on Wednesday and pushed an index of chip makers below a key technical level.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dipped 0.01 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX shed 0.1 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC fell 0.5 percent.

(Reporting by Joanne Frearson; editing by Sophie Walker)