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* FTSEurofirst 300 rises 0.2 pct
* Dexia, Axel Springer, Carlsberg up after results
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU]
By Brian Gorman
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - European shares edged up in early trade on Wednesday, tracking Wall Street higher, as earnings reports on both sides of the Atlantic beat forecasts.
But strategists warned that issues such as the euro zone debt crisis may keep share markets rangebound.
At 0846 GMT the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top European shares was up 0.2 percent at 1,152.27 points, after rising 0.8 percent to a one-week closing high in the previous session.
The European benchmark is up more than 78 percent from its lifetime low of March, 2009, helped by the monetary easing polices of governments and central banks worldwide. However, it has recently traded in a range set by its 2011 high in mid-February and a low in mid March.
Dexia
"The corporate news has generally been very positive," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investment Management. "You can see a trail of issues such as U.S. debt, the end of QE2 (quantitative easing), sorting out the euro, but for the time being, people are enjoying a corporate spring."
"There is cash looking for a home, and M&A deals going through. We may go further on the upside in the short term, but there is increasing concern this is not going to be sustainable," he added.
German publisher Axel Springer
Danish brewer Carlsberg
Of the 272 STOXX Europe 600 companies due to report in the current results season 56 percent of the 190 to have already reported have beat forecasts, Thomson Reuters StarMine data showed.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 <.FTSE> fell 0.1 percent; Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> and France's CAC40 <.FCHI> rose 0.4 and 0.1 percent respectively.
The Thomson Reuters Peripheral Eurozone Countries Index <.TRXFLDPIPU> was up 0.6 percent.
HSBC FALLS
HSBC
Peripheral euro zone debt issues remained a concern. Euro zone officials will debate Greece's debt crisis next week but no decision will be taken, a German deputy finance minister said on Wednesday.
"As the market implicitly prices in the higher risk of default, bond yields rise, bringing problems of solvency even more to the fore. And so it continues," said analysts at Jefferies in a note.
"Restructuring or further talk of Greece exiting EMU (which we don't expect to happen) could cause more capital to flow from the periphery to the core and other countries," they added. (Editing by Greg Mahlich)