European stocks fell, led by banks and raw-material companies, as Lloyds Banking Group Plc failed to announce an agreement on a government asset insurance program and metals dropped. Asian shares rose, while U.S. futures fluctuated. Lloyds lost 22 percent. Norsk Hydro ASA, the fifth-largest aluminum producer, slid 4.8 percent after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended selling the shares and copper declined. Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. added 2.7 percent as people familiar with the matter said the U.S. will require Citigroup Inc. to raise private capital. Citigroup was little changed. Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index fell for the fifth time in six days, decreasing 2 percent to 172.67 at 11:29 a.m. in London. The regional gauge lost 9.7 percent this month, the sixth straight decline, as companies from Anglo American Plc to Cie. de Saint-Gobain SA posted disappointing results and the economic crisis in eastern Europe deepened. “The economy and the solidity of companies is the main concern,” said Peter Braendle, who oversees $50 billion at Swisscanto Asset Management in Zurich. “Commodity prices show the economy is on a retreat, demand is not stabilizing and prices are coming under pressure. Sentiment is very pessimistic.” The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1.1 percent today, helping the regional gauge trim its biggest decline for a start to a year since 1990, as Nintendo Co. climbed. S&P 500 Futures Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fluctuated between gains and losses before a report that may show the economy shrank in the fourth quarter at a faster pace than previously estimated as companies reduced inventories. Lloyds slipped 22 percent to 58.8 pence. The lender’s full- year net income dropped 75 percent to 819 million pounds ($1.2 billion). Lloyds’ HBOS unit posted a 7.5 billion-pound loss for 2008 after bad loans at the bank’s corporate lending arm increased. Lloyds rose 31 percent yesterday after Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc said it would put 325 billion pounds of investments into the asset protection program and shift an additional 540 billion pounds of assets into a so-called bad bank. The government is trying to shield banks from further losses to boost lending and spur economic growth. Talks with the U.K. Treasury are “progressing and well advanced,” Lloyds said in a statement today. The Treasury said it won’t make an announcement today. RBS slid 15 percent to 24.6 pence, after surging 26 percent yesterday. Barclays Plc slumped 10 percent to 101.2 pence. Europe’s Stoxx 600 has tumbled 53 percent since the start of last year as credit-related losses at financial firms worldwide climbed to $1.1 trillion and Europe, the U.S. and Japan fell into the first simultaneous recessions since World War II. Eastern Europe The World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the European Investment Bank will provide up to 24.5 billion euros ($31 billion) to help central and east European banks and businesses cope with the financial crisis. “We have a special responsibility for the region and because it makes economic sense,” EBRD President Thomas Mirow said in a joint statement issued by the international organizations today in London. “For many years, the growing integration of Europe has been a source of prosperity and mutual benefit and we must not allow this process to be reversed.” Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany said in an interview yesterday that he wants the European Union to arrange a package of as much as 180 billion euros to help east European economies, banks and companies weather the financial crisis. Hungary’s Budapest Stock Exchange Index lost 0.3 percent today. Poland’s WIG20 Index gained 1 percent, trimming its 2009 slump to 21 percent. Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro slid 4.8 percent to 23.65 kroner. Goldman Sachs downgraded the shares to “sell” from “neutral,” citing a reduction in its base metals price forecasts. Copper, lead and nickel fell today. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial, Japan’s biggest bank, climbed 2.7 percent to 454 yen. Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp. gained 1.4 percent to A$16.89. The Obama administration will require Citigroup to raise private capital and make changes to its board of directors as part of an effort to strengthen the bank, according to people familiar with the matter. The plan, which may be announced today, will involve the Treasury Department converting preferred shares into common stock. The government doesn’t immediately intend to provide additional money after channeling $45 billion to the bank last year, the people said. Citigroup added 1 cent to $2.47. Health-Care Stocks A gauge of European health-care companies slid 4.7 percent, extending the index’s February decline to 13 percent. Roche Holding AG lost 3 percent to 129 Swiss francs. Copies of costly biotechnology medicines made by Roche’s American subsidiary Genentech Inc. would be allowed in the U.S. with few delays in a proposal made by President Barack Obama. Genentech would face competition to older drugs that have lost patent protection. Nintendo, which sells four times more of its Wii game machines in the Americas than in Japan, climbed 3.3 percent to 28,490 yen as the weaker yen boosted the value of repatriated overseas sales. Canon Inc., the world’s biggest digital-camera maker, jumped 3.7 percent to 2,540 yen. The yen touched 98.71 per dollar yesterday, the weakest since Nov. 10.

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