By Tom Stoukas - Feb 10, 2012 8:09 PM GMT+0700
European (SXXP) stocks fell for the fourth time in five days as a Greek politician backing the nation’s government said he won’t support austerity measures demanded by the region’s finance ministers. U.S. index futures and Asian shares also retreated.
National Bank of Greece SA (ETE) tumbled 10 percent. Saab AB (SAABB) plunged 9.2 percent after fourth-quarter earnings and sales missed analysts’ estimates. Barclays Plc erased early losses and advanced 3.1 percent after raising its cost-cutting target and reducing the bonus pool. Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) jumped 15 percent after saying adjusted operating margins will increase in 2012.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.9 percent to 261.17 at 1:07 p.m. in London, extending its weekly loss to 1.3 percent. The gauge has still advanced 6.8 percent this year amid optimism that the euro area will contain its debt crisis and that the U.S. economic recovery remains intact. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.8 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1.5 percent.
“It’s still Greece that’s dominating,” the sentiment, said Will Hedden, a sales trader at IG Markets Ltd. in London. There are “people ready to get in and get some risk on and move this market forward, but it is this little annoying Greece issue, I think, that is still stopping people from jumping in.”
George Karatzaferis, the leader of the Laos party, today said he couldn’t support the accord worked out for a new financing agreement in its present form.
Lack of Assurance
Euro-area finance ministers yesterday refused to approve a second aid package because of a lack of assurances by Greek party leaders that they will stick to their commitments after elections due as soon as April. The ministers asked Greece to turn its budget cuts into law and identify 325 million euros ($429 million) in spending reductions.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said after the Brussels meeting that the parliamentary vote set to begin this weekend amounted to a ballot on euro membership.
“If we see the salvation and future of the country in the euro area, in Europe, we have to do whatever we have to do to get the program approved,” Venizelos said.
China’s exports fell and imports slid more than forecast in January, the first declines in two years, as a week-long holiday disrupted trade and commodity prices dropped.
In the U.S., a report at 9:55 a.m. New York time may show that the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary consumer sentiment index for February probably eased to 74.8 from January’s one-year high of 75, according to the median forecast of 71 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.
Bank Shares
National Bank of Greece, the country’s largest lender, fell 10 percent to 2.66 euros. Alpha Bank SA, the second-biggest, plummeted 14 percent to 1.38 euros. EFG Eurobank Ergasias SA dropped 13 percent to 84.3 euro cents.
Saab declined 9.2 percent to 135.50 kronor, its biggest drop since June 8. The Swedish company reported a fourth-quarter net income of 413 million kronor ($62 million) against analysts’ projection for 474 million kronor.
Barclays rose 3.1 percent to 240.35 pence, after falling as much as 3.5 percent. The first of Britain’s biggest banks to report full-year earnings, Barclays raised its cost-cutting target for the next year to 2 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) to bolster profit. It set limits on cash bonuses and cut the amount it set aside for bonuses at Barclays Capital by 32 percent. The London-based lender also said it may fail to hit the 13 percent target for return-on-equity by 2013.
Commerzbank AG (CBK), Germany’s second-biggest lender, lost 6 percent to 2.04 euros.
Alcatel-Lucent Profit Margin
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), France’s largest telecommunications-gear supplier, jumped 15 percent to 1.72 euros after it said it expects to increase adjusted operating margins in 2012.
National Grid Plc (NG/) slid 1.7 percent to 629 pence after its stock was cut to “neutral” from “overweight” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Total SA dropped 1.3 percent to 40.62 euros. The company plans to cut net investments to $20 billion in 2012, compared with $22 billion last year. Adjusted net income in the fourth quarter was 2.73 billion euros, in line with the average analyst estimate of 2.72 billion euros.
Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) plunged 12 percent to 38.48 pence, its biggest decline since May 25, after saying that full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization at its Panama unit will be less than its own projection. The business has been affected by the high level of competition in mobile-phone services, the company said.
Next Plc (NXT), the U.K’s second-largest clothing retailer, advanced 1.5 percent to 2,760 pence after the shares were raised to “buy” from “hold” at Deutsche Bank AG. (DBK)
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Stoukas in Athens at astoukas@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net
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