European stocks rose for a fourth day and the euro strengthened before Spain and France sell bonds. Copper climbed to a four-month high amid signs China will relax credit controls. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.2 percent at 9:20 a.m. in London, extending a five-month high. Standard & Poor’s 500 futures slipped 0.1 percent, having earlier climbed as much as 0.4 percent. The euro rose 0.2 percent to $1.2888 and The cost of insuring European sovereign debt fell to the lowest in more than six weeks. Spanish (GSPG10YR) 10-year yields were little changed at 5.16 percent, while French yields fell one basis point to 3.13 percent after reaching 3.16 percent, the most since Jan. 12. Copper jumped 1.3 percent. France will seek to raise as much as 9.5 billion euros ($12.2 billion) in bond sales today and Spain will auction debt maturing in 2016, 2019 and 2022. China is letting its larger banks boost lending and weighing a plan to relax capital requirements, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be identified. “Once again, traders will get their lead from the fixed- income market, with Spain and France holding their first longer- dated bond auctions since the S&P downgrade amid a backdrop of stabilization in yields,� said Chris Weston, an institutional trader at IG Markets in Melbourne. “We have seen a good bid in the short-dated paper, but will investors be keen on taking longer-term duration risk?� Best Start Two shares gained for each that fell in the Stoxx 600. Alstom SA (ALO) rallied 7.8 percent, the most in more than two months, after the world’s third-largest power-equipment maker said orders will be “strong� in the fiscal fourth quarter. Carrefour SA slipped 2 percent as the world’s second-largest retailer said 2011 profit was at the lower end of its forecasts. The Stoxx 600 has advanced 3.8 percent in 2012, the best start to a year since 2004. The S&P 500 climbed to the highest level since July yesterday. EBay Inc. (EBAY) advanced 2.7 percent in German trading today as the largest Internet marketplace reported fourth- quarter sales and profit that beat estimates. Eastman Kodak Co., the photography pioneer that introduced its $1 Brownie Camera more than a century ago, tumbled 35 percent after filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors. Of the 22 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings since Jan. 9, 12 posted per-share profit that topped analysts’ projections, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Twenty-two companies in the S&P 500 are due to report results today, including Bank of America Corp., Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. Housing Starts A Commerce Department report might show U.S. builders broke ground on fewer homes in December, and building permits, a sign of future construction, were little changed, a Bloomberg survey of economists said. Labor Department data will probably show that initial jobless claims fell to 384,000 last week from 399,000 the previous period, according to the median forecast of 41 economists. The Markit iTraxx SovX Western Europe Index of credit- default swaps on 15 governments dropped 3 basis points to 354 basis points, the lowest since Dec. 12. Copper climbed as much as 1.6 percent to $8,372 a metric ton, the highest price since Sept. 21. The Standard & Poor’s GSCI gauge of 24 commodities advanced 0.7 percent, led by the industrial metals. China is the biggest buyer of copper. Oil in New York gained 0.9 percent to $101.51 a barrel. To contact the reporters on this story: Stephen Kirkland in London at skirkland@bloomberg.net; Lynn Thomasson in Hong Kong at lthomasson@bloomberg.net; To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stuart Wallace at Swallace6@bloomberg.net

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