RTTN: European Markets Edge Down Amid Mixed Economic Data
(RTTNews) - The European markets are lingering in negative territory in mid-morning deals Tuesday, as weaker commodities prices continue to drag miners lower, while technology stocks are under pressure after Apple issued a soft earnings guidance. Meanwhile, bank stocks are moving up ahead of earnings reports from U.S. bank - Goldman Sachs - which is scheduled to report before the U.S. markets open.
Meanwhile, U.S stock futures are pointing to a marginally lower open Tuesday. Yesterday, U.S. stocks closed up after Citigroup Inc. (C) said it swung to a profit in third quarter, reporting net income of $2.15 billion, compared with a loss of $3.24 billion in the year ago quarter. On a per share basis, the company reported net income of $0.07, in comparison with a loss of $0.27 in the year-ago quarter, beating analysts' estimates for net income of $0.06 per share.
Elsewhere, Asian markets ended mixed.
In the commodities market, crude for November delivery is easing $0.24 to $82.84 a barrel. Traders await clues from the data on housing starts and building permits due out from the U.S. later today, to gauge the situation in the housing market in the U.S., the world's largest economy. After the U.S. markets close today, the API will release its weekly U.S. crude oil inventories data.
Elsewhere, the price of gold is down, with gold for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, easing $3.50 to $1,368.60 an ounce.
In economic news from the euro zone, the ZEW indicator of economic sentiment for Germany dropped to minus 7.2 in October from minus 4.3 in the previous month, indicating analysts are apprehensive about the country's economic prospects. Economists had forecast a score of -7.0. In contrast, the current conditions index surged by 12.7 points to 72.6, well over expectations for a score of 64.0.
The European Central Bank said the euro zone recorded a seasonally adjusted current account deficit of 7.5 billion euros in August, which was almost twice as large as the 4.1 billion euro-deficit recorded a month earlier and represents the largest current account deficit recorded since September last year. On the other hand, the surplus in the goods account narrowed to 0.9 billion euros from 2.9 billion euros, while the service account surplus came in at 1.5 billion euros.
Meanwhile, euro zone construction output dropped a working day adjusted 8.5% year-on-year in August, after a revised 6.9% decline in July, data from Eurostat showed.
Among stocks, the world's largest maker of ball bearings SKF AB is up around 8% after it said it agreed to buy Lincoln Industrial Corp. for $1 billion.
The U.K.'s second-largest software company Autonomy Corp. is adding nearly 4% after reporting a 10% jump in its third quarter revenues to $211 million.
Advertising group Havas SA recorded organic revenue, which excludes acquisitions and mergers, of 368 million euros for the quarter. Nine-month sales by the same standard rose 2.9% to 1.1 billion euros. The stock is moving up over 5%.
Semiconductors products maker Soitec is up nearly 4% after reporting a 46% increase in first-half revenue to 137.3 million euros.
The U.K.'s largest hotel and restaurant operator, Whitbread Plc is rising nearly 1% as its first-half operating profit moved up to 168.4 million pounds from 127 million pounds a year earlier.
Meanwhile, Aeroports de Paris is slipping over 1% even after it said that its passenger traffic increased by 5.2% in September from a year earlier.
Shares of the Swiss iron ore producer Ferrexpo Plc is easing 0.50% even after UBS AG rated the stock as 'Buy'.
The FTSE 100 is currently down 0.22%, the CAC 40 is easing 0.05% and the DAX is edging down 0.04%.
