Europe Advances on Earnings

Ivaylo
13 Nov, 2006
New York City

Mining stocks, weakened in response to lower commodity prices. Top of the earnings pile on Monday was Alstom, the French engineering group. It reported a 27% rise in first-half operating profit. Miners were the biggest weight to the downside on worries that a slowdown in the global economy would hurt demand for metals. In early trade, the FTSE 100 in London climbed 0.2%, Frankfurt Xetra Dax gained 0.1%, and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.3%.

[R]6:30AM European stocks move higher Monday on upbeat earnings.[/R]
European markets were higher on Monday. In early trade, the FTSE 100 in London climbed 0.2% to 6,218.0, Frankfurt Xetra Dax gained 0.1% to 6,365.67, and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.3% to 5,459.83.

Advancers

Alstom It reported a 27% rise in first-half operating profit, together with an operating margin of 6.32%. The outlook was also positive, targeting an operating margin of 7% for 2007 and full-year sales growth of more than 10%. Alstom shares rose 5.1%.

Spanish Sacyr Vallehermoso, rose 4.1% ahead of its nine-month results. Deutsche Telekom rose 2.6% after the company announced on Sunday the resignation of Kai-Uwe Ricke.

Decliners

Miners declined the most on fears that a slowdown in the global economy would hurt demand for metals. Rio Tinto fell 2.4%, while BHP Billiton lost 1.7%.

Shares in Swiss drugmaker Novartis fell 1.6% after asking the US Food and Drug Administration to extend its review period on Galvus, its diabetes treatment, to consider new data showing that skin problems in animal tests were not seen in trials on patients.

Iberdrola, the Spanish utility, fell 1.8% after ratings downgrades followed announcement on Friday that it was in merger talks with Scottish Power.

Oil and gold

Crude oil fell as mild weather in the U.S., the world''s largest energy consumer, reduced demand for heating oil. Crude oil for December delivery fell 27 cents to $59.32 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME. Brent crude oil was down 7 cents to $59.64 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange.

Gold for immediate delivery gained as much as $4.15, or 0.7 %, to $632.70 an ounce. Gold futures for December delivery rose $3.50, or 0.6 %, to $633.60 an ounce.

Currencies

In morning trading, the euro bought $1.2857, up from $1.2847 late Friday in New York. Among other currencies, the British pound rose to $1.9122 from $1.9113 while the dollar was down slightly to purchase 117.41 Japanese yen from 117.62 yen.

[R]5:00AM Copper and gold futures declined Friday on profit-taking[/R]
The benchmark December copper contract was down 22.05 cents to end at $3.0885 per pound on theNYME. Profit-taking left December gold $6.70 lower at its settlement price of $630.10 a troy ounce. December silver finished 6.5 cents stronger at $13.115 an ounce. January platinum futures were helped by influences including technical buying and finished $8.60 higher at $1,209.60 an ounce while December palladium settled $8.20 lower at $330.70 an ounce.

December crude oil futures ended $1.57 lower at $59.59 a barrel. December heating oil slid 4.90 cents to finish at $1.6966 a gallon, and December unleaded gasoline declined 3.83 cents to close at $1.5627 a gallon. December natural gas futures closed 16.1 cents lower at $7.794 a million British thermal units.

December Arabica coffee futures closed 3.35 cents lower at $1.1585 a pound. March raw sugar futures settled 0.33 cents lower at 11.85 cents a pound.