Europe Stock Futures Are Little Changed; Asian Shares Decline

By Adria Cimino

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- European stock futures were little changed, with the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index heading for its third straight weekly decline, the longest losing streak since March. Shares in Asia retreated.

France Telecom SA, Europe’s third-largest phone company, may slip after UBS AG advised selling the shares. Lanxess AG may gain after Deutsche Bank AG recommended Germany’s largest publicly traded specialty chemical maker. BHP Billiton Ltd. led commodity producers lower in Asia as metals fell.

Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50, a benchmark for the euro region, added less than 0.1 percent to 2,371 at 7:42 a.m. in London. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index may rise 9, according to Cantor Index. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.3 percent.

The Stoxx 600 has lost 0.2 percent this week, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in the U.S. tumbled 2.5 percent as a worse-than-projected decrease in American jobs added to concern that rising unemployment will prolong the first global recession since World War II. U.S. markets are closed today.

Europe’s Stoxx 600 has dropped 5 percent since June 11 on speculation share prices have outpaced the outlook for economic growth after a three-month rally pushed valuations to 25.4 times earnings, the highest level since 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Equities may manage a small bounce after yesterday’s big sell-off, but with little in the way of fundamentals due and volumes likely to be depressed given the holiday across the Atlantic, it could end up being a rather uninspiring session,” Matthew Buckland, a dealer at CMC Markets in London, wrote.

France Telecom

France Telecom was cut to “sell” from “neutral” at UBS. Lanxess was raised to “buy” from “hold” at Deutsche Bank, which said a “cost cutting program will support earnings.”

BHP, the world’s biggest mining company, fell 2.7 percent in Australia. Copper slipped for a second day in London.

American depositary receipts of Total SA, Europe’s biggest oil refiner, retreated 0.6 percent from the close in France.

Crude oil was little changed, poised for a third week of declines, on speculation of reduced fuel demand with U.S. unemployment climbing to the highest in almost 26 years.

Logitech International SA, the world’s biggest maker of computer mice, was rated “overweight” in new coverage at Morgan Stanley, which said the current share price is “an attractive entry point.”

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