Friday January 11, 08:45 AM
Euroshares tick lower at open as broker downgrades weigh on L'Oreal, Unilever
LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Leading European exchanges ticked slightly lower with broker downgrades weighing on consumer staple Blue Chips Unilever, L'Oreal (Paris: FR0000120321 - news) and Danone (Paris: FR0000120644 - news) .
At 8.06 am, the STOXX 50 was down 8.94 points at 3545.29 and the STOXX 600 was down 0.33 points at 345.05.
Last night, the DJIA ended the day up 117.78, or 0.92 pct, to 12,853.09 after a day of see-sawing boosted by a report that Bank of America Corp is close to buying struggling mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp.
Broader stock indicators also rebounded. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 11.20, or 0.79 pct, to 1,420.33, while the Nasdaq composite (NASDAQ: news) index rose 13.97, or 0.56 pct, to 2,488.52.
But after the close, American Express (NYSE: AXP - news) shares fell after the company said it will take a fourth-quarter charge because of slower spending and higher delinquencies last month.
American Express also said it expects card-member spending to slow in 2008.
And the New York Times (NYSE: NYT - news) said Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER - news) is expected to suffer 15 bln usd in losses stemming from soured mortgage investments, saying the banking group will announce the huge write-down when it reports earnings next week.
The loss will far exceed the 12-billion-dollar hit that many Wall Street analysts had forecast.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 (news) index closed down 277.32 points, or 1.9 pct, at 14,110.79, while the Hang Seng (news) ended its morning session up 27.40 points at 27,258.26.
Meanwhile, oil prices turned around after recent heavy drops on worries about a US recession that could dampen global demand for crude. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February, increased 76 cents to 94.47 usd a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for February delivery gained 76 cents to 92.98 usd/bbl.
Unilever NV fell 4.2 pct as it was downgraded to 'underweight' from 'equal-weight' at Morgan Stanley (SPU - news) .
L'Oreal was cut to 'sell' from 'hold' at Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) and to 'sell' from 'hold' at ABN Amro (Amsterdam: AABA.AS - news) . Shares fell 3.39 pct.
Danone was down 2.64 pct after it was also cut to 'sell' form 'hold' in the ABN Amro HPC and food producers note.
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