European stocks declined, after posting a ninth weekly gain in ten, as investors watched developments in Iraq and as euro-area manufacturing weakened. U.S. index futures and Asian shares were little changed. BNP Paribas SA slid 1 percent after a person familiar with the negotiations said France’s biggest lender close to an agreement to plead guilty to settle U.S. sanctions allegations. Distribuidora Internacional de Alimentacion SA advanced 2.9 percent after the Spanish discount grocer said it would sell its French business to Carrefour SA. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.5 percent to 346.24 at 10:01 a.m. in London. The benchmark gauge advanced 0.3 percent last week as the Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates low for a prolonged period and closed 0.5 percent away from a six-year high. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained less than 0.1 percent each today. “Bullish sentiments are muted due to geopolitical risk,� said Manish Singh, who helps oversee about $2 billion as head of investments at Crossbridge Capital in London. “A deterioration in euro-area manufacturing, especially in France, where it continues to be a major drag, as well as increasing uncertainty in Iraq, which begets higher oil prices and hurts consumption, are a drag on the market.� Iraq Crisis Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda breakaway group known as ISIL, captured all the border crossings with Jordan and Syria. U.S. President Barack Obama warned that the fighting could spill over into neighboring countries. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad to discuss with political leaders. A Markit Economics report showed that euro-area manufacturing slid to 51.9 this month from 52.2 in May. Economists had forecast it would be unchanged. A similar release for the U.S. may indicate that output slid to 56 in June from 56.4 in May, the projections show. In China, the gauge rose to a seven-month high in June, according to the preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics. A number above 50 indicates expansion. In the U.S., a National Association of Realtors report at 10 a.m. New York time may show that previously owned U.S. home purchases climbed to a 4.74 million annualized rate in May, according to economists in a Bloomberg News survey. They rose to a 4.65 million rate the previous month. BNP Settlement BNP Paribas lost 1 percent to 50.69 euros. The bank may pay $8 billion to $9 billion to settle a probe that it intentionally hid transactions amounting to about $30 billion that violated U.S. sanctions against countries including Iran and Sudan. Paris-based BNP Paribas will probably plead guilty in early July to a criminal charge of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, according to a person familiar with the matter. OC Oerlikon Corp. fell 1.5 percent to 13.05 Swiss francs after Chief Executive Officer Brice Koch told Schweiz am Sonntag that the maker of textile machinery plans further acquisitions, adding that the company wants to expand in North America. Sulzer AG dropped 2.1 percent to 127.50 francs. Vontobel Holding AG reduced its earnings-per-share estimates on the pumpmaker for 2014, 2015 and 2016. The brokerage cited potential costs to upgrade the company’s IT infrastructure, currency fluctuations and seasonally weak first-half sales and margins. DIA added 2.9 percent to 6.76 euros. Carrefour said it will buy back DIA’s French business for an enterprise value of 600 million euros ($816 million), less than three years after spinning it off. Rio Tinto Group climbed 2.3 percent to 3,148.5 pence, and BHP Billiton Ltd. rose 1.7 percent to 1,934 pence. A gauge of European mining companies was the only one of 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600 that advanced, gaining 0.9 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net

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