Europe Moves Lower

Ivaylo
06 Jun, 2006
Frankfurt

After losses at the opening of trade across Europe, the French market continued its fall by mid-morning while Germany and the Eurofirst 300 recuperated slightly from their weakest levels. The Swiss market, which was on holiday on Monday, declined sharply with the SMI index down 1.1% as it played catch-up with weakness elsewhere. By mid morning, the FTSE Eurofirst had dropped 1%, the German Dax dipped 1% too and the French CAC 40 shed 1.4%.

[R]6:30AM European shares fell broadly across the region.[/R]
European markets fell by mid morning. The FTSE Eurofirst had shed 12.9 points or 1% to 1,305.91, while the German Dax declined 40.8 points or 1% to 5,580.83 and the French CAC 40 dropped 66.4 points or 1.4% to 4,849.68. The takeover struggle for BAA saw another turn as Goldman Sachs announced it was prepared to offer 955.25p after market talk prompted the UK airport operator had been up to a revised 950.25p takeover offer from Grupo Ferrovial of Spain. Both bids include the BAA dividend of 15.25p. Ryanair shed 1.9% after the budget airline announced it anticipated profits growth of 5 to 10% this year if oil prices stayed close to $70 a barrel. Axa, the French insurance company, said it had reached an agreement to sell its Axa Re business to Stone Point Capital, the US private equity group. Axa dropped 1.2%. Novartis reported that it would pay up to $507m in milestone payments to the US biopharmaceuticals company Human Genome Sciences to acquire rights to Albuferon, a treatment being developed for chronic hepatitis C infections. Novartis declined 0.5%.

Light, sweet crude oil for July delivery dropped 20 cents to $72.40 a barrel and July Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange declined 29 cents to $71.08 per barrel. Gold traded at $633.50 an ounce on Tuesday, down $10 an ounce from Monday's close of $643.50. The dollar gained against the other major currencies. The euro dropped to $1.2906 from $1.2909, after it rose on Monday to its highest level since May 15. The greenback advanced to buy 112.39 Japanese yen from 112.16 the day before, while the British pound fell to $1.8720 from 1.8724 in New York.

[R]5:00AM Precious metals advanced on dollar, oil and Iran.[/R]
August gold rose $7.70 to $648.70 an ounce on NYME. July silver gained 21 cents to $12.295 an ounce and July platinum advanced $13.60 to $1,258.50 an ounce. September palladium climbed $5.65 to $364 an ounce. The benchmark July copper contract ended 1.45 cents up at $3.6010 per pound.

The July crude contract ended 27 cents higher at $72.60 a barrel after rising as high as $73.84 in overnight trading. July gasoline rose 3.33 cents to $2.1642 a gallon. On the New York Board of Trade, July Arabica coffee closed 2.80 cents down at 98.45 cents a pound while September shed 2.80 cents to $1.0125 a pound. Futures on raw sugar in foreign ports for July finished up 0.18 cent at 15.39 cents a pound while October advanced 0.18 cent to 15.73 cents a pound.