Europe Sinks on US Data Concerns

Ivaylo
08 Dec, 2006
New York City

European markets were trading slightly lower on Friday, tracking US subdued close as investors await the monthly US employment report, published later. The markets are jittery ahead of November non-farm payrolls data, a keenly-watched yardstick of jobs creation in the US economy. London-listed miners influenced the market the most, as some key stocks were lower. By mid morning, FTSE 100 in London slipped 0.2%, Frankfurt Xetra Dax shed 0.3%, and the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.5%.

[R]6:30AM European markets were lower Friday as markets await US job report.[/R]
European markets were trading lower Friday. By mid morning, FTSE 100 in London slipped 0.2% to 6,118.3, Frankfurt Xetra Dax shed 0.3% to 6,394.01, and the CAC 40 in Paris declined 0.5% to 5,353.59.

Advancers

Banks bucked the overall downtrend and advanced. Barclays added 1.1% in the light of recent bid talks, while KBC in Belgium gained 1.9% after sturdy results this week. Capitalia in Italy advanced 2.2%.

Deutsche Börse gained 1% after Citigroup hiked its price target on the German stock exchange operator.

Decliners

Miners listed in London influenced the negative trend on the markets the most after Merrill Lynch reduced its rating on the sector and lowered some indivdual stocks. Xstrata, which was lowered to neutral, shed 3.1%, while Antofagasta and Kazakhmys, both reduced to sell shed 2.8% and 3.1% respectively.

German truckmaker Man, declined 1% on worries it may sweeten its unfriendly bid for Swedish rival Scania after it said on Thursday it was prolonging its offer period. Scania was off 0.3%.

Oil and gold

Crude oil for January delivery advanced 31 cents to $62.80 a barrel in electronic trading on the NYME, up from $62.49 a barrel on Thursday. January Brent crude at London ICE Futures exchange gained 33 cents to $62.90 a barrel.

Currencies

In early European trading, the euro traded at $1.3284, up from $1.3280 in New York late Thursday. In England, the Bank of England abstained from hiking its rate and held it firm at 5 percent Thursday. The British pound traded on Friday at $1.9674, up from $1.9620 on Thursday. The dollar gained slightly to 115.32 Japanese yen from 115.29 yen.

[R]5:00AM Gold and silver prices finished higher on short-covering and higher oil.[/R]
On the NYME, gold for delivery in February finished $1.10 higher at $637 a troy ounce. March silver advanced 24 cents at $14.035. January platinum shed 80 cents to close at $1,124.90 an ounce while March palladium added 90 cents to end at $331 an ounce. The most-traded March copper dipped 5.8 cents to close at $3.1020 per pound.

January crude oil contract gained 30 cents to close at $62.49 a barrel, although the February contract shed 14 cents to $63.38 a barrel. January heating oil lost 1.52 cents to end at $1.7788 a gallon while January unleaded gasoline edged 0.63 cent higher to finish at $1.6275 a gallon. December natural gas declined 5.6 cents at $7.671 a million British thermal units.

December Arabica coffee futures moved 0.20 cent higher to end at $1.2190 a pound on the New York Board of Trade. March futures of raw sugar in foreign ports dipped 0.27 cent to close at 11.22 cents a pound.