European, U.S. Stock-Index Futures Drop; Asian Shares Retreat

By Adria Cimino

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- European and U.S. stock-index futures declined and Asian shares retreated as earnings reports at companies from Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA and Anglo American Plc to Bridgestone Corp. indicated the global recession is deepening.

Saint-Gobain, Europe’s biggest supplier of building materials, may be active after reporting a drop in profit and saying it plans on selling new shares. Anglo American, the mining company that controls the world’s biggest platinum producer, suspended its dividend as earnings slumped.

Futures on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a benchmark for the euro region, fell 2.1 percent to 2,071 at 7:46 a.m. in London. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index may decrease 58, according to Cantor Index, a betting firm.

Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index has lost 4.1 percent this week, extending its 2009 slump to 7.6 percent. The regional index has tumbled this year as companies from Electricite de France SA to Diageo Plc posted disappointing results and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner failed to convince investors that his plan to rescue U.S. banks will work.

“This could be a rather damaging end to the week,” Matthew Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets in London, wrote. “Investors are quite simply running out of short-term confidence with equities.”

U.S. stocks dropped yesterday, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a six-year low, as concern about rising credit-card defaults dragged financial shares to the lowest level since 1995.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index sank 2.3 percent today as Japan’s Topix Index fell to its lowest since January 1984. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 1 percent.

Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain plans to sell 1.5 billion euros of new shares to shore up capital eroded by slowing construction and an antitrust fine. Net income dropped 7.3 percent to 1.38 billion euros last year and net debt increased 18 percent to 11.7 billion euros, the company said. The global economic crisis makes the 2010 targets set in 2007 “obsolete,” it said.

Lafarge SA, the world’s largest cement maker, reported plans to sell 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in shares to help bolster finances after fourth-quarter earnings declined.

Lafarge said cost-cutting initiatives will be extended to help save 200 million euros in 2009 and Lafarge’s investment budget will decline by the same amount to 1.8 billion euros. Fourth-quarter profit slid to 40 million euros from 375 million euros a year earlier, when the French company booked disposal gains.

Anglo American

Anglo American said it will resume dividend payments “as soon as market conditions allow. Full-year underlying earnings dropped to $4.36 a share from $4.40 in 2007.

Bridgestone sank 7.4 percent to 1,251 yen after saying net income will probably fall 71 percent to 3 billion yen ($32 million) this year as demand for new cars wanes.

Continental AG, the German tire and car-component manufacturer bought by Schaeffler Group last month, and Michelin & Cie., the world’s second-largest tiremaker, may drop on Bridgestone’s results.

Prudential Plc, the U.K.’s second-largest insurer, said life and pensions sales dropped 34 percent in the fourth quarter. Sales dropped to 3.7 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) from 5.6 billion pounds in the same period a year earlier, the insurer said.

Swiss Life Holding AG, Switzerland’s biggest life insurer, said full-year profit fell to 340 million Swiss francs ($288 million) from 1.37 billion francs a year earlier.

Royal Ahold NV, the Dutch owner of the U.S. Stop & Shop supermarket chain, had its recommendation cut to “underweight” from “equal weight” at Morgan Stanley. The analysts cited a “deeper pension deficit.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net.