By Andrea Tryphonides The euro hit a fresh high for the day against the dollar following a successful Spanish bond auction and the country's bond yields remained steady but European equity markets struggled to make much headway as strong retail earnings were offset by weakness in mining stocks. Spain's 10-year yield was down a basis point on the day at 5.02%, up from 4.99% immediately before the auction while the euro hit $1.3371. Spain sold its maximum targeted 4.5 billion euros ($5.98 billion) worth of bonds Thursday, spurring confidence in the country's ability to finance itself without international aid. Spain has a heavy schedule this year, with an aim to sell EUR121.3 billion of bonds in 2013, 7.6% more than in 2012. Recent successful issuance by Spain has allayed concerns that the country will have to ask its European partners for a bailout. All lines at today's bond auctions were oversubscribed noted Newedge economist Annalisa Piazza in a note. "However, Spanish yields have already moved down a lot since the start of the year and the Moody's [Investors Service] report issued earlier this week was a sort of wake-up call, highlighting that a downgrade cannot be ruled out as the economic scenario remains depressed," she said. With a lack of European economic data on the schedule, the focus will likely switch to earnings --in particular, results from Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. On Wednesday, U.S. financial shares were mostly positive after a spate of bank earnings led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. As well as a focus on financials, investors will also be watching out for Boeing Co.'s shares after regulators temporarily grounded its 787 Dreamliners. By mid-morning trading, U.S. stock futures were flat. In European corporate news, strong earnings from retailers Associated British Foods PLC and Home Retail Group PLC saw their shares leap. This was good news after a dismal couple of weeks for the U.K. high street; Wednesday the U.K. arm of DVD rental firm Blockbuster called in administrators to sell or wind down the company and earlier in the week music entertainment chain HMV went into administration. Also on the upside, Belgian retailer group Delhaize Group surged following well-received fourth-quarter sales. But Rio Tinto PLC shares fell after the Anglo-Australian mining company said it would book a $14 billion impairment charge. In addition, its chief executive Tom Albanese said he would be stepping down. The Stoxx 600 basic resources index dropped 1.1%. Later in the session, U.S. housing starts, weekly jobless claims and the Philadelphia Fed index are expected. Latest Price Change From Previous Close FTSE 100 6098.99 -0.1% DAX 7672.04 -0.2% CAC-40 3724.96 +0.4% Stoxx Europe 600 285.94 0.0% Hang Seng 23339.76 -0.1% Nikkei 225 10609.64 +0.1% Shanghai Composite 2284.91 -1.1% Dow Jones Industrials 13511.23 S&P 500 1472.63 DJIA Future 13432.00 0.0% S&P 500 Future 1465.80 0.0% Level In Late New York Trading (Previous Session) EUR/USD 1.3360 1.3289 USD/JPY 89.35 88.36 Change From Previous Close March. German Bund Future 142.86 -0.51 Feb. Nymex Crude Oil 94.48 +0.24 Feb. Brent Crude Oil 110.01 +0.33 Gold 1681.30 +0.40 Write to Andrea Tryphonides at andrea.tryphonides@dowjones.com or on Twitter @ATryphonides

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