Thursday October 22, 08:06 AM
Glance-European Factors-Shares set to slip; focus on earnings
LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) - European shares are set to open sharply lower on
Thursday, tracking a hefty sell-off in the U.S. and Asian equity markets, as
disappointing results from Ericsson (Stockholm: ERIC-B.ST
- news) and EBay (NASDAQ: EBAY - news) hurt sentiment.
U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, pressured by a late sell-off in financials
after an influential bank analyst recommended selling Wells Fargo
shares. Rochdale Research analyst Richard Bove cut his rating on the stock
saying loan losses were mounting.
Futures for the Eurostoxx 50 (Zurich: news) , Germany's DAX (Xetra: news) and the French
CAC 40 (Paris: news) were down between 1.3 percent and 1.4 percent. Financial
spreadbetters earlier expected Britain's FTSE 100 to open down 58 to 66
points, or as much as 1.3 percent lower.
Japan's Nikkei (news) average fell 0.6 percent on Thursday, while in the
U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 0.9 percent to end at
9,949.36 on Wednesday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.89 percent,
to 1,081.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index shed 0.59 percent to 2,150.73.
Online auctioneer EBay Inc disappointed investors who were hoping for a
substantial turnaround for the holidays. The company forecast results for the
fourth quarter at the low end of Wall Street estimates.
'There's no escaping the simple fact that stocks have been starting to look
increasingly overbought for some time now,' said Ben Potter, analyst at IG
Markets.
'Earnings news will remain focused on the U.S. session with classic blue
chips from AT&T to Xerox (NYSE: XRX - news) due to report and again any shortcomings could give
traders further reason to sell.'
The market was bracing for more results on Thursday from companies such as
Credit Suisse, Nestle (4707.KL - news) , Novartis (Virt-X: NOVN.VX - news) , American Express (NYSE: AXP - news) , Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN - news) , AT&T, 3M Co., McDonald's Corp.,
Merck (MERK.JK - news) & Co. and Xerox Corp..
Investors awaited September U.S. leading indicators and the latest initial
weekly jobless numbers later in the session, and digested Chinese growth data,
though robust, offered few surprises.
News that China's economy surged 8.9 percent in the third quarter, and
retail sales and other indicators were robust in September, reinforced optimism
Asia was on a sustainable recovery path. But the outcome was widely expected,
giving investors little to trade on.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares rose 0.5 percent
to close at 1,025.88 points on Wednesday, recouping almost all the loss from the
previous session, and taking it near to its highest close since Oct. 3, 2008.
----------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT AT 0643 GMT----------------------
LAST PCT CHG NET CHG
S&P 500 1,081.40 -0.89 % -9.66
NIKKEI 10,267.17 -0.64 % -66.22
MSCI ASIA EX-JP 465.31 -1.44 % -6.80
EUR/USD 1.4978 -0.14 % -0.0021
USD/JPY 91.43 0.47 % 0.4300
10-YR US TSY YLD 3.400 -- 0.01
10-YR BUND YLD 3.312 -- 0.00
SPOT GOLD $1,056.55 -0.17 % -$1.80
US CRUDE $80.85 -0.64 % -0.52
* GLOBAL MARKETS-Asia shares slip, China data fails to help
* US STOCKS-Wall St see late sell-off, financials fall
* Nikkei slides broadly, JAL (Berlin: JAY.BE - news) rising streak snapped
* FOREX-Dollar up as China data offers no upside surprise
* TREASURIES-Prices fall, worry monetary stimulus will wane
* Oil falls 0.5 pct; around $81/bbl as dollar gains
* Gold flat near $1,060/oz, weaker dollar supports
* METALS-Shanghai copper hits 2-month high on LME gains
COMPANY NEWS
ERICSSON
Telecom gear maker Ericsson posted lower-than-expected third-quarter core
earnings and said sales in its key mobile networks market were hampered by tough
market conditions. For details, see:
NESTLE
The world's biggest food group, met forecasts with nine-month organic sales
growth of 3.6 percent after a disappointing first-half 3.5 percent, and upped
its share buyback.
CREDIT SUISSE
Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS - news) reported net income of 2.4 billion in Swiss francs 3Q09
and return on equity of 25.1 percent; tier 1 ratio of 16.4 percent.
NOVARTIS
Novartis' third-quarter net profit nudged up 1 percent to $2.1 billion, hit
by one-off costs and in line with forecasts, and the drugmaker expects a boost
from its H1N1 swine flu vaccine in the fourth quarter.
BHP BILLITON (LSE: BLT.L - news) , RIO TINTO (LSE: RIO.L - news)
A proposed iron-ore joint venture between BHP Billiton Ltd
and rival Rio Tinto Ltd was on track, BHP's outgoing Chairman
Don Argus told reporters after a business lunch on Thursday.
LLOYDS BANKING GROUP (LSE: LLOY.L - news)
The bank s planning to launch a rights issue and refinancing next week,
provided the bank can persuade regulators and the government to agree to a deal
before the weekend, the Financial Times said.
BAE SYSTEMS (LSE: BA.L - news)
Oshkosh Corp's winning bid for a potential $3.5 billion U.S. Army
medium-sized truck contract was about 10 percent lower than rival BAE Systems'
'very aggressive' bid, BAE said Wednesday, explaining a third formal challenge
to the award they filed on Friday.
SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC (SU.NX - news)
The company said Q3 sales fall 17 percent to 3.95 billion euros, Reuters
poll average for Schneider Electric Q3 sales was 3.97 billion euros, the company
raised 2009 EBITA margin target to 12.5 percent from 12 percent.
PERNOD RICARD (RI.NX - news)
The company said Q1 sales 1.646 billion euros, Reuters poll average for
Pernod Ricard Q1 sales 1.644 billion euros, the company said sales in line with
its expectations with a positive price/mix effect, said sees early signs of
improvement appear in certain markets.
EADS (EAD.NX - news)
U.S. aerospace major Boeing Co (NYSE: BA - news) estimates northeast Asia will need
1,200 airplanes over the next 20 years, which would be worth $190 billion, a
senior company executive said on Thursday. For details, see:
FIAT (Milan: F.MI - news)
Car maker Fiat said it expected to boost trading profit 50 percent to 1.5
billion euros in 2010 from this year's target if Italy continued subsidies to
buy cars, but still planned to stick to its tough cost control.
U.S. auto sales are projected to rise nearly one-fifth to 11.8 million units
in 2010, influential industry tracking firm CSM Worldwide said on Wednesday,
citing signs that the worst of the economic downturn had passed.
VIVENDI (VIV.NX - news)
Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG - news) is partnering with major music labels, like Vivendi's
Universal Music Group, to launch a new feature to make it easier to discover,
sample and buy songs on the search engine, according to two people familiar with
the plan. For details, see:
DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA (Xetra: 823212 - news) , AIR BERLIN (Xetra: AB1000 - news)
Lufthansa's budget unit Germanwings is expecting the most profitable
business year in its history, its head told German business newspaper Financial
Times Deutschland. Deutsche Lufthansa is indicated 0.8 percent lower, while Air
Berlin is indicated 0.8 percent lower. Related news
TELEFONICA (Madrid: BTEF.MC - news)
Spain's Telefonica has carried out a planned share swap with China's
Unicom, with each company buying $1 billion of the other's shares, it
said on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Atul Prakash)
Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE FACTORS
|
|
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
