European, U.S. Stock-Index Futures Fall; Renault May Decline

By Sarah Jones

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- European stock futures fell, indicating the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index may decline for the first time in three days. U.S. index futures retreated before a report that may show the economy sank into a deeper recession.

Renault SA, which owns 44 percent of Nissan Motor Co., might decline after Toyota Motor Corp.'s debt rating was cut by Fitch Ratings. GDF Suez SA may fall after the world's second- biggest utility said it will delay the remainder of its buyback. Swiss Life Holding may be active after the insurer announced plans to reduce costs by cutting jobs in Switzerland after scrapping profit targets and dividends earlier this month.

Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50, a benchmark for the euro region, lost 20, or 0.8 percent, to 2,372 at 7:44 a.m. in London. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index may open down 64, according to CMC Markets. Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 0.6 percent. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.3 percent.

``After the stellar gains we've seen in equity markets, today's session is set to start with the inevitable pause for breath,'' said Matt Buckland, a London-based dealer at CMC.

U.S. stocks rose yesterday and the S&P 500 posted its first three-day advance since September after the Federal Reserve committed as much as $800 billion to help resuscitate lending. Shares in Asia retreated today, led by Japanese and Thai stocks.

Europe's Stoxx 600 has fallen 45 percent in 2008, headed for its worst year on record, as credit losses and writedowns approached $1 trillion in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Deeper Recession

A report today will probably show the U.S. sank into a deeper recession as consumer spending, the biggest part of the economy, dropped in October by the most since the 2001 contraction. Orders for durable goods, sales of new houses and consumer sentiment also fell, other reports may indicate.

Renault, France's second-largest carmaker, may fall after Fitch cut Toyota's credit rating, the Japanese carmaker's first downgrade in 10 years, as the slump in U.S. car sales drags down earnings at the company.

Swiss Life, the worst performer this year in an index of Europe's top insurers, may move. The company wants to save 90 million Swiss francs ($75.5 million) by 2012 through changes to its structure, trimming computing projects and eliminating 200 posts in Switzerland. The insurer will make about one-third of the savings through the job cuts, it said.

GDF Suez has bought back 500 million euros ($649 million) of shares since Sept. 1 and said it will delay the ``execution'' of the rest until the May annual general meeting. The company also confirmed its full-year and medium-term earnings targets and said it would make additional cost savings.

HSBC Holdings Plc may move. UBS AG upgraded the shares to ``buy'' from ``neutral,'' citing ``largely unimpaired'' cash generation at Europe's biggest bank. Any cut to the dividend would be temporary, the brokerage said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net.