By Adria Cimino
Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- European stock-index futures were little changed as a report that showed Germany’s economic recovery accelerated in the third quarter helped offset lower commodity prices. Most Asian shares declined.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the world’s biggest mining company and Australia’s largest oil producer, slipped 1.4 percent in Sydney. Porsche SE, the maker of the 911 sports car, may be active after posting a full-year pretax loss. British Airways Plc will probably move after agreeing to a plan for a $7 billion merger with Spanish carrier Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA.
Futures on the Dow Jones Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a benchmark gauge for the euro region, slipped 0.1 percent to 2,868 as of 7:23 a.m. in London. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index may decrease 11, according to Cantor Index, a betting firm.
Market moves today may come from news on mergers and acquisitions or commodity prices, according to James Hughes, a market analyst at CMC Markets in London. “Otherwise we could well see the week end with a whimper,” he wrote in a note.
Europe’s Stoxx 600, poised for its second straight weekly advance, has rallied 56 percent since March amid speculation government stimulus programs and record-low interest rates are helping to drag the economy out of recession. Gains have pushed its valuation to about 54 times reported earnings, near the highest level since 2003.
Gross domestic product in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.7 percent from the second quarter, when it rose 0.4 percent, the Federal Statistics Office said in Wiesbaden today. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of 35 economists was for growth of 0.8 percent. The second-quarter figure was revised from 0.3 percent.
U.S. Futures
U.S. equity benchmark indexes yesterday fell from 13-month highs as energy shares slumped following bigger-than-estimated growth in oil stockpiles, erasing an earlier advance spurred by Hewlett-Packard Co.’s takeover of 3Com Corp.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures added 0.2 percent today, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.1 percent.
BHP Billiton declined 1.4 percent to A$39.01 in Australia.
Crude oil was little changed after falling to the lowest level in a month in New York on concern that fuel demand has not recovered in the world’s biggest energy consumer. The contract for December delivery declined as much as 94 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The London Metals Index, a measure of six metals including copper and zinc, retreated 0.8 percent yesterday, the steepest drop this week.
Porsche, BA
Porsche posted a full-year pretax loss after writing down the value of options on shares of Volkswagen AG, the company it’s merging with after a failed takeover bid.
The 4.4 billion-euro ($6.5 billion) loss in the year ended July 31 compared with an 8.6 billion-euro profit a year earlier, the company said. Porsche plans a dividend of 5 cents per preferred share, a reduction of 93 percent from the 70-cent payout for fiscal 2008.
BA agreed to a plan for a $7 billion merger with Iberia, ending more than a year of talks on a tie-up aimed at fighting a slump in travel and closing the gap with competitors.
Under the all-share deal, BA shareholders will get one share in the combined company for every existing share they hold in BA and Iberia investors will get 1.0205 shares in the enlarged company for every Iberia share they hold, the companies said yesterday after the market closed.
Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA, the world’s largest jewelry maker, said its operating profit fell to 390 million euros in the first half from 635 million euros the year earlier. Currency effects will have a negative impact on results in the second half, Richemont said.
Dexia, Technip
Dexia SA, France’s biggest lender to local governments, reported a third-quarter profit after selling its U.S. bond insurance unit. Net income was 274 million euros, following a 1.54 billion-euro loss in the year-earlier period, the Paris- and Brussels-based bank said. That compares with a 272 million- euro median estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Technip SA, Europe’s second-largest oilfield services provider, confirmed its full-year sales outlook and reported third-quarter net income of 108 million euros.
Siemens AG, Europe’s biggest engineering company, may gain after UBS AG rated the shares a “short-term buy.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Adria Cimino in Paris at acimino1@bloomberg.net.
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