European, U.S. Stock-Index Futures Decline; Asian Shares Slide

By Sarah Jones

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- European stock-index futures fell, indicating the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index may retreat from a three-week high. U.S. futures and Asian shares also declined.

Utility companies may retreat after Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest power producer, cut its 2009 earnings target and Germany’s RWE AG reported a drop in nine-month earnings. Anheuser-Busch InBev NV might move after the world’s largest brewer reported profit that beat analysts’ estimates.

Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50, a benchmark gauge for the euro region, slipped 0.2 percent at 7:17 a.m. in London. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index may fall 9, according to CMC Markets.

European stocks rallied to a three-week high yesterday after China’s industrial production surged and Credit Agricole SA and Holcim Ltd. posted earnings that beat analyst estimates. In the U.S., the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed to a 13- month high as Federal Reserve policy makers signaled interest rates will remain at a record low. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in December lost 0.3 percent today.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.3 percent as declines by Japanese drugmakers countered advances among mining companies and automakers. Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical Co. and Tsumura & Co. sank more than 7 percent in Tokyo after the Yomiuri newspaper said a government committee advised cutting drug costs to trim medical expenses.

‘Slow and Bumpy’

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the world faces a gradual and uneven recovery from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“The worst is over,” Wen said in speech televised from a forum in Beijing. “The global economy is starting to recover but a total recovery will be a slow and bumpy process.”

EDF, the world’s biggest operator of nuclear reactors, cut its full-year target for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization on lower nuclear output. Sales in the nine months through Sept. 30 increased 6.7 percent.

RWE might decline after Germany’s second-largest utility said nine-month earnings fell 7 percent as the global economic slump cut demand and prices. Recurrent net income, which excludes writedowns and swings in fuel prices, fell to 2.87 billion euros ($4.3 billion).

AB InBev reported third-quarter net income of $1.55 billion, beating the $1.39 billion average of eight estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company didn’t provide a net income figure for the previous year’s period, when it was being formed by a $52 billion merger.

Telefonica, BT

Telefonica SA might decline after Europe’s second-largest phone company posted a 0.6 percent drop in third-quarter profit to 1.99 billion euros amid the worst Spanish recession in six decades. Sales fell 5.7 percent to 14.13 billion euros.

Analysts had predicted profit of 2.01 billion euros on sales of 14.23 billion euros, the average estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

BT Group Plc, the U.K.’s largest fixed-line phone company, said fiscal second-quarter profit dropped on lower sales and costs to revamp the business. Ebitda slid to 1.31 billion pounds ($2.17 billion) from 1.33 billion pounds a year earlier, the London-based company said. Revenue before some items declined 3.4 percent to 5.12 billion pounds.

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