By Adria Cimino
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- European stock-index futures slid, following declines in the U.S. and Asia, after Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, cut its full-year profit target and falling commodity prices weighed on mining shares.
Munich Re will probably fall after third-quarter earnings missed analysts' estimates. Lafarge SA, the world's largest cement maker, may retreat after abandoning its target for 2010 earnings. BHP Billiton Ltd., the biggest mining company, slid in Australia as copper prices slipped in Asia. Siemens AG may drop after UBS AG recommended selling shares Europe's largest engineering company.
Futures on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a benchmark for the euro region, fell 4, or 0.1 percent, to 2,542 at 7:35 a.m. in London. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index may decrease 25, according to Cantor Index, a betting firm.
U.S. stocks slid yesterday, sending the market to its biggest two-day slump since 1987, after jobless claims jumped and the shrinking economy crushed earnings at companies from Blackstone Group Inc. to News Corp. Asian stocks fell for a second day today as the slowdown drove metals prices lower.
``Wall Street continued to fall through yesterday's session'' and that will weigh on stocks, Matthew Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets, wrote. ``Commodity prices will also be closely watched as further falls here will have the potential to weigh on miners.''
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index retreated 1.7 percent, while Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures climbed 1.5 percent.
Economic Mess
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index is heading for a 3 percent drop this week, extending this year's decline to 41 percent. More than $27 trillion has been erased from the value of global equity markets as credit losses and writedowns topped $690 billion in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
President-elect Barack Obama may find out today just how big an economic mess he's inheriting. The Labor Department will probably say the jobless rate climbed to a five-year high of 6.3 percent in October, economists said before the report due in Washington at 8:30 a.m. Payrolls shrank by 200,000 workers, the biggest decline since the start of the Iraq War in March 2003.
Munich Re cut its full-year target for the second time this year. Third-quarter net income fell to 7 million euros ($8.9 million) from 1.2 billion euros in the year-earlier period. That missed the 112 million-euro median estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Earnings Tally
Lafarge said it couldn't reiterate 2010 targets and that it will cap investment next year to preserve cash as demand for cement and aggregates slows in the U.S. and Europe. Third- quarter profit increased 7.8 percent to 647 million euros after making acquisitions to drive global expansion.
Earnings for the 1,066 companies in western Europe that reported results since Oct. 7 declined 7.7 percent on average, trailing expectations by 5.7 percent, Bloomberg data show.
BHP lost 4.4 percent in Australia, while Rio Tinto Group, the world's second-biggest exporter of iron ore, sank 8.6 percent.
Copper slumped by the exchange-imposed daily limit in Shanghai amid signs a global economic slowdown is damping demand for raw materials as stockpiles rose to the highest since 2004. Gold fell for a third day in Asia.
Siemens may decline. UBS cut its recommendation on the shares to ``sell'' from ``buy.''
Sanofi-Aventis SA, France's biggest drugmaker, was downgraded to ``sell'' from ``neutral'' at UBS.
Sodexho, British Airways
Sodexo, the world's second-largest catering company, said full-year profit rose 8.4 percent to 376 million euros after it added contracts with schools and hospitals and sold more service vouchers in Europe. That beat the 358 million euros estimated by seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
British Airways Plc, Europe's third largest carrier, reported a first-half loss because of higher fuel costs and falling traffic. The net loss of 49 million pounds ($77 million) compared with net income of 493 million pounds a year earlier. Sales rose 6.4 percent to 4.75 billion pounds.
British Airways also said traffic, the number of passengers multiplied by distance flown, fell 4.4 percent in October.
Rentokil Initial Plc, the world's largest pest-control provider, said third-quarter profit fell 60 percent to 23.1 million pounds, hurt by its unprofitable City Link parcel- delivery unit and lost customers at a washroom services division. Analysts predicted 25.4 million pounds, according to a consensus estimate cited by Citigroup Inc.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net.
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