By Sarah Jones
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks rose before earnings from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. U.S. futures fluctuated, while Asian shares advanced for a third day.
ING Groep NV gained 1.7 percent after Singapore’s Oversea- Chinese Banking Corp. agreed to pay $1.46 billion for the Dutch company’s private-banking assets in Asia. Remy Cointreau SA jumped 7.8 percent as its sales decline eased. Nokia Oyj slumped the most in three months the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones posted a loss.
Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.6 percent to 248.42 at 11:51 a.m. in London, extending a 12-month high. The measure has surged 57 percent since March 9 as companies from Royal Philips Electronics NV to JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported earnings that beat analysts’ estimates.
“It’s very difficult to see what is going to derail the markets,” Andreas Uterman, chief investment officer at the RCM unit of Allianz Global Investors, which manages $1.34 trillion, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “I think we are going to face a pretty good earnings season. The combination of top- line growth, good business models from some companies, and the continued effects from cost cutting is going to produce some quite good numbers.”
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.6 percent today as Posco, the region’s third-largest steelmaker, increased its profit forecast. Thailand’s SET Index tumbled 5.3 percent, the biggest loss in a year, as King Bhumibol Adulyadej remained in the hospital for a 26th day. The 81-year-old monarch’s “general condition is good,” the Royal Household Bureau said in faxed statement late yesterday.
U.S. Futures
Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed after the Dow climbed above 10,000 for the first time in a year yesterday on better-than-estimated earnings from JPMorgan and Intel Corp.
The S&P 500 and Dow extended their advances yesterday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September meeting showed central bankers raised economic projections based on improved housing markets and a recovery in growth outside the U.S.
Goldman Sachs gained 1 percent to $194.23 in pre-market New York trading before reporting earnings. The bank’s third-quarter profit almost tripled to $2.4 billion, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Goldman Sachs is due to announce third- quarter results at 7:30 a.m. in New York, with Citigroup reporting at 8 a.m.
ING Increases
ING climbed 1.7 percent to 12.70 euros. Oversea-Chinese, Singapore’s third-largest lender, agreed to buy the assets after beating out HSBC Holdings Plc. The price includes the unit’s estimated surplus capital of about $550 million. HSBC slipped 0.7 percent to 718.1 pence in London.
Remy Cointreau jumped 7.8 percent to 34.17 euros after France’s second-largest liquor company reported a smaller sales decline as demand for cognac in the U.S. and Asia improved. Revenue in the six months to June 30 fell 0.7 percent to 362.7 million euros. That was less than the 7.5 percent drop reported for the first quarter.
Diageo Plc and Pernod Ricard SA, the world’s largest distillers, gained 1.6 percent to 971.5 pence and 2.4 percent to 55 euros, respectively.
Nokia fell 7 percent to 9.58 euros after posting a third- quarter net loss of 449 million euros ($833.9 million), compared with 1.09 billion-euro profit in the year-earlier period. Analysts in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a profit of 367 million euros, on average. Sales declined to 9.8 billion euros, missing analysts’ estimates of 10.03 billion euros.
Sainsbury, Qatar
J Sainsbury Plc surged 8.7 percent to 338.1 pence, the biggest intraday advance in more than a year, amid speculation Qatar is interested in acquiring the U.K.’s third-largest supermarket owner.
“There is definitely more interest in Sainsbury this morning,” said Manus Cranny, London-based senior market commentator at MF Global Spreads. “It looks as if the rumbling rumor of the Qataris potentially looking at Sainsbury is back on the rumor mill.”
Charles Watenphul, a spokesman for Sainsbury, said “we never comment on market speculation.”
Ashmore Group Plc surged 9.7 percent to 301 pence, the biggest intraday jump since in tow months. The U.K. money manager that focuses on emerging markets said assets under management gained 25 percent last quarter, boosted by rising markets as investors bet the worst of the recession is over.
Anglo, Xstrata
Anglo American Plc slipped 3.6 percent to 2,227 pence as Xstrata Plc dropped its proposed 30.4 billion-pound ($49 billion) hostile bid. Xstrata fell 2 percent to 1,010 pence.
Aggreko Plc climbed 5.8 percent to 770.5 pence. The world’s largest provider of mobile power-supply gear raised its outlook for earnings this year, boosted by an improvement in orders and margins at its unit which supplies portable power plants to clients across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
WH Smith Plc increased 2.8 percent to 511 pence after the U.K.’s biggest seller of magazines posted a 7 percent increase in full-year profit to 63 million pounds, driven by gains at its travel shops.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Jones in London at sjones35@bloomberg.net.
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