European stock-index futures retreated, signaling the Stoxx Europe 600 Index will decline for a second day, as investors weighed corporate earnings and awaited data that may show euro-area industrial output fell. U.S. index futures and Asian shares also dropped.
EON SE may decline after Germany’s biggest utility lowered the upper end of its forecast range for 2013 profit. Hochtief AG may move after saying nine-month profit rose. Carlsberg A/S may be active after posting quarterly profit and cutting the outlook for the Russian market.
Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index (SX5E) expiring in December declined 0.4 percent to 3,019 at 7:47 a.m. in London. Contracts on the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index slid 0.4 percent today. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slipped 0.1 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.9 percent.
“We’re near the end of the earnings season and it was half light, half shadows,” Andreas Lipkow, a senior market strategist at Kliegel & Hafner AG in Berlin, said by telephone. “In the next few days, jobless claims and manufacturing data out of the U.S. will give more information about the Fed’s plans. Everybody is guessing when tapering will begin and the market is nervous about this.”
Investors will watch U.S. economic reports this week on first-time claims for employment benefits and manufacturing in the New York area for clues on when the Federal Reserve will reduce the pace of its stimulus.
Economists had forecast the central bank will delay a decision until March. Policy makers will then probably pare monthly bond purchases to $70 billion from $85 billion, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey on Nov. 8. The Fed next meets Dec. 17-18.
Euro-Area Industry
A report at 11 a.m. in Luxembourg may show industrial output in the 17-nation euro area slipped 0.3 percent in September, after increasing 1 percent in the prior month, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Stocks in Asia fell to a one-month low after China’s leaders failed to outline specific measures to reduce the State dominance of the economy. The central committee of the Communist Party of China yesterday closed its first plenary session under the presidency of Xi Jinping, saying the role of markets would be elevated in the nation’s economic development.
EON may be active. The company said profit will be near the lower end of its forecast range for 2013, after reporting a 52 percent decline in profit in the first nine months of the year. EON narrowed its target for underlying net income to 2.2 billion euros ($2.96 billion) to 2.4 billion euros, from 2.2 billion euros to 2.6 billion euros previously.
Hochtief, Carlsberg
Hochtief may move. Germany’s largest construction company said nine-month net income rose to 150.4 million euros from 89.8 million last year. Hochtief also confirmed its forecast for 2013 for a profit of between 160 million euros and 200 million euros.
Carlsberg may be active. The world’s fourth-largest brewer said third-quarter earnings before interest and taxes fell to 3.43 billion Danish kroner ($620 million) from 3.6 billion kroner a year earlier. The average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg was 3.45 billion kroner.
GDF Suez SA may move. France’s former natural-gas monopoly reported nine-month profit that was in line with analysts’ estimates and reiterated its financial targets. GDF said full-year net recurring profit would be at the top end of the forecast range of 3.1 billion euros to 3.5 billion euros.
Source : bloomberg
