Europe Plunges on Mortgage Fears, Weak Dollar

Ivaylo
11 Jul, 2007
New York City

European markets were mostly lower Wednesday, as financial stocks saw a sell-off on sustained concern about the impact of the weakening U.S. housing market and as exporters were under pressure from plummeting U.S. dollar. UBS AG and Siemens AG led declines, while BskyB and Carrefour bucked the overall trend. The German DAX 30 index slipped 1.4%, the French CAC-40 index lost 1.1% and the U.K. FTSE 100 index declined 0.6%.

[R]6:30AM European markets decline on financial services stocks and exporters.[/R]

European markets were sharply lower Wednesday. The German DAX 30 index slipped 1.4% at 7.858.22, the French CAC-40 index lost 1.1% at 5,955.39 and the U.K. FTSE 100 index declined 0.6% at 6,590.30. National benchmarks declined in all 17 western European markets that were open except Denmark.

Banks fell sharply across the region as investors around the region are worried about the losses in the U.S. mortgage market. Exporters suffer as well as the dollar slid to its lowest level against the euro and the other major currencies.

In London, HSBC Holdings and HBOS led the decliners on concern losses in subprime mortgages in the U.S. will hamper economic and earnings growth. Royal Dutch Shell and BP dropped after Goldman, Sachs & Co. downgraded the shares and crude oil retreated. Among the gainers were BskyB, AstraZeneca and BG Group.

In Frankfurt, industrial group Siemens weighed on the market as the slump in the dollar affected the company which derives 20% of its sales from exports in the U.S. BMW also dipped.

In Paris, Michelin & Cie., Alcatel-Lucent and Alstom SA declined.

Advancers of the Day

BskyB rose 2.2% after the satellite television firm announced that it has added a record number of new customers in the three months to June 30 of 349,000, up 20% from last year.

AstraZeneca gained 1.8% after an upgrade from Morgan Stanley to overweight from a previous rating of equal-weight.

Goldman Sachs upgraded gas explorer BG Group to buy from sell. BG shares rose 1.2%.

Decliners of the Day

Swiss bank UBS lost 1.6%, while Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland second-largest bank, declined 1.3%

Siemens, the largest engineering company in Europe, fell 1.4%. The company derives about 20% of its revenue in the U.S. BMW, the largest maker of luxury cars in the world, lost 1.3%.

Supermarket chain Carrefour outperformed the French market, trading down just 0.4% after it posted second-quarter sales growth of 5.9% to 22.64 billion euros after strong growth in Spain, Greece, Poland and Romania.

Royal Dutch Shell shares lost 1%.

Currencies

The U.S. dollar sank further against the euro Wednesday, as the euro reached $1.3784 overnight before settling back to $1.3740 in morning European trading. The British pound, bought $2.0279 Wednesday, slightly above the $2.0267 it bought late Tuesday. The dollar fell to 121.45 yen from 122.03 yen.

[R]5:30AM Gold advances modestly Wednesday, while copper falls, oil surges.[/R]

The most-active gold for August delivery on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange ended up $1.90 at $664.40 an ounce, touching a one-month peak of $667.00, which marked the highest level since June 7. Silver also rallied with a 15.5-cent advance to settle at $12.975 an ounce.

Copper dropped despite diminishing inventories, while steel-coating metals nickel and zinc plummeted on the London Metal Exchange. In New York, copper futures shed 1.95 cents to close at $3.61 a pound on the Nymex.

Crude oil for August delivery added 62 cents a barrel to settle at $72.81 on reports of refinery problems and, as a result, raising prices for refined products. Gasoline futures also rose 2.48 cents to end at $2.3694 a gallon, while natural gas and heating oil prices climbed too.

November soybeans rallied 18.4 cents to end at $9.204 a bushel, while wheat advanced 2.2 cents to close at $6.016 a bushel. December corn gained 6.6 cents to close at $3.57 a bushel.