European stocks Find Balance on Monday, EADS drops (Reuters) (07-01-2008)

PARIS, Jan 7 (Reuters) - European stocks found some sort of balance after the sharp losses of the previous session, which were caused by the disappointing U.S. jobs data that fuelled U.S. recession fears and hit global equities.

Miners and automakers were in trouble again, with Xstrata down 2.6 percent and Fiat retreating by 1.8 percent.

Aerospace group EADS lost 3.6 percent, due to the reported possibility of the group's A400M military transport aircraft faces fresh problems which may delay its first flight. The Airbus Military spokesman had no comment on the report.

By 0915 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,459.9 points.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index is already 3.2 percent down in 2008, after ending 2007 with a thin gain of 1.6 percent.

According to a Reuters poll, the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by at least a quarter percentage point this month, with a growing number of Wall Street firms seeing a greater chance of an even bigger cut following Friday's dismal employment report.

Interest rate decisions by both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are due on Thursday.

Around European markets, Germany's DAX index was up 0.06 percent, UK's FTSE 100 index up 0.1 percent and France's CAC 40 up 0.1 percent.

Energy shares bounced after Friday's drop, helped by an upbeat note from ING, and steady crude oil prices. BP was up 1.4 percent, Royal Dutch Shell up 1.2 percent and Total up 1.5 percent.

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