Europe close: US job disappointment hits Europe

Date: Friday 06 Jul 2012

- US Job numbers disappoint
- Spanish industrial production falling
- Air France up on union agreement

FTSE 100:-0.53%
Dax 30: -1.92%
Stoxx 600: -1.02%
Cac 40: -1.88%
Ibex 35: -3.1%
FTSE MIB: -2.53%

Most European stock markets ended the day down after news on jobs in the US and production in Spain weighed on sentiment.

The closely watched “non-farm” payrolls figure showed the US economy added 80,000 jobs in June, up from the 77,000 increase seen in May. The increase was less than the market had been expecting.

Industrial production in Spain fell 6.1% in May versus the prior year, although this rate of decline was slower than the 8.3% seen in April - in other words the decline in output may be bottoming out. Certainly market expectations had been for the figures to be much worse, at minus 8.1%.

In Germany, the same industrial production metric rose 1.6% in April against a 2.1% decline in April. Again, this was slightly better than the market had been expecting.

COMPANIES

The strongest sector on the Stoxx Europe 600 index was food and beverage, which climbed 0.4%. Automobiles and parts was the weakest declining 3.32%

That sectoral drop can be partly explained by French firm Peugeot’s slide of 7.7% on disappointing truck sales.

BMW (-4.55%) was the victim of a ratings downgrade by analysts at Morgan Stanley, from buy to hold.

Air France-KLM rose 4.4% on increasing passenger numbers and an agreement with unions on ground staff redundancies.

OTHER MARKETS

The euro was down 0.73% against the dollar at 16:50 London time at $1.2300.

Front month futures contracts on a barrel of Brent crude had fallen a whopping 2.6% by 16:32 to stand at $98.10.

BS

« Go back to news channel

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE