By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares traded lower on Wednesday as losses for miners after a weaker-than-expected reading on U.S. employment offset gains for banks after a relatively limited take-up of European Central Bank funds.
After hitting 245.55 earlier in the session, the Stoxx Europe 600 (ST:SXXP 242.99, -0.83, -0.34%) traded down 0.3% to 243.04. The index fell 3% on Tuesday on worries over growth in the U.S. and China as well as the health of European banks.
Worries about U.S. growth resurfaced on Wednesday afternoon in Europe, after ADP pegged private-sector job gains in June at 13,000, far below estimates of 60,000. The data comes ahead of the government's nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
Metal futures fell after the data, with copper down 1 cent at $2.91 per pound and platinum futures down $16.10 at $1,539.00 an ounce, and miners declined with Vedanta Resources (UK:VED 2,134, -34.00, -1.57%) down 1.2%.
Early gains in Europe came as bank-sector fears receded somewhat after a low take-up at the European Central Bank's three-month tender auction, with 131.9 billion euros allotted to lenders.
The refinancing was closely watched as a gauge of the health of European banks, coming ahead of Thursday's expiration of a 442 billion euro 12-month refinancing operation. See full story.
Deutsche Bank (DE:DBK 46.75, +0.71, +1.53%) (DB 57.13, +1.17, +2.09%) shares were up 1.3% in Frankfurt and BNP Paribas (FR:BNP 44.34, +0.59, +1.35%) shares rose 1.1% in Paris.
Of the major regional equity markets, the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,428, -5.19, -0.15%) traded down 0.2% at 3,425.57, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 4,919, +5.27, +0.11%) rose 0.1% to 4,919.26 and the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,960, +7.50, +0.13%) rose 0.1% to 5,959.72.
Asian shares were lower but U.S. stock futures were pointing to a bit of a rebound on Wednesday from sharp losses in the previous session.
BP (BP 28.73, +1.06, +3.83%) (UK:BP. 321.15, +18.25, +6.03%) shares managed to buck the lower trend in U.S. trading on Tuesday and the oil major gained on Wednesday in London, up 5.9%.
On Tuesday J.P. Morgan oil industry analyst Fred Lucas explored a merger and acquisition "fantasy" in which Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM 57.50, +0.21, +0.37%) , run by Rex Tillerson, offers to buy BP in 2011.
He also mentioned Royal Dutch Shell (UK:RDSA 1,693, -15.50, -0.91%) (RDS.A 50.81, -0.38, -0.74%) , down 1.1% on Wednesday, as a possible bidder for BP.
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. approved aspects of the design of the Deepwater Horizon rig, the Financial Times reported late Tuesday, citing executives. Anadarko owns 25% of the Macondo well and has been trying to distance itself from BP after the explosion, the report said.
Other notable gainers included AstraZeneca (UK:AZN 3,193, +245.50, +8.33%) (AZN 47.79, -0.95, -1.95%) , up 8.4% after a U.S. district court enforced a patent protecting Crestor, a cholesterol drug.
J.P. Morgan Cazenove upgraded the stock to neutral from underweight, which said the ruling raises the possibility of a significant share buyback program. See full story.
Elsewhere in the sector, shares of France's Sanofi-Aventis (FR:SAN 49.04, +0.36, +0.73%) (SNY 30.08, +0.33, +1.11%) rose 0.6% after it said it has agreed to acquire TargeGen Inc. a privately held U.S. biopharmaceutical company for as much as $560 million.
In other deal news, Portugal Telecom (PT:PTC 8.75, +0.45, +5.42%) (PT 10.03, -0.09, -0.89%) shares were halted as the Portuguese government on Wednesday used its "golden share" in Portugal Telecom to block the sale of the company's stake in Brazilian mobile operator Vivo Participaoes to Spain's Telefonica (ES:TEF 15.14, +0.03, +0.20%) (TEF 55.67, +0.48, +0.87%) .
Telefonica late Tuesday had sweetened its offer to 7.15 billion euros, or about $8.8 billion. Telefonica shares slipped 0.3% in Madrid. See full story.
