By Sally French and Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Europe's benchmark stock index erased
losses Friday in volatile afternoon action after
stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs numbers spurred confidence in the
world's largest economy.
The Stoxx Europe 600 traded 0.3% higher at 373.71, after trading
as low as 370.93 earlier in the day.
The turnaround came after the nonfarm-payrolls report from the
U.S. showed 257,000 new jobs were added to the economy in January,
beating analyst projections of a 230,000 print. The unemployment
rate, however, climbed to 5.7% from 5.6%, as more people entered
the workforce. U.S. stock futures moved firmly higher after the
data.
In Europe, banks led the move north for the Stoxx 600, with
shares of Barclays PLC (BCS) up 233%, Bankia SA 3.1% higher and
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA rising 3.6%.
However, the optimism over the U.S. jobs report wasn't enough to
shift all of Europe out of negative gear. Greece's Athex Composite
was down 2.3% to 800.46, following a whirlwind week of meetings by
Greek officials as they laid the groundwork for debt-renegotiation
talks with international creditors.
Eurozone finance ministers have called an emergency meeting for
Wednesday next week to discuss how to get Greece and the rest of
Europe closer to a debt agreement. Finance Minister Yanis
Varoufakis said Greece won't accept any deal at the Eurogroup
meeting that keeps the bailout program as it is now, Reuters
reported Friday. Earlier in the week, Varoufakis stepped up his
push for eurozone partners to accept a bridge loan so Greece could
have more time to renegotiate, but Eurogroup president Jeroen
Dijsselbloem on Friday killed any hopes that eurozone governments
will grant such short-term financing.
Read: Greece and Germany can't even agree to disagree
The Greek index fell more than 3% on Thursday after the European
Central Bank restricted liquidity to Greek banks. On Friday,
National Bank of Greece shares were down 9.7%, Alpha Bank slid 14%,
and Eurobank Ergasias dropped 1%.
But the Athens benchmark was still on track for an 11% weekly
advance, largely because of Tuesday's jump of 11% after Greece's
finance minister indicated the country won't ask the eurozone for a
debt haircut.
Among other European benchmarks, Germany's DAX 30 index lost
0.5% to 10,855.29, while France's CAC 40 index fell 0.1% to
4,700.60. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index was slightly lower at
6,864.75.
Tate & Lyle PLC moved sharply lower in London, with its
shares sliding 14% after the ingredients maker said it expects
full-year profit to come in below its previous forecast. Weak
performance in its bulk-ingredients unit in the third quarter is
likely to run through the fourth quarter, it said.
Germany engineering heavyweight Siemens AG (SIEGY) fell 0.8%
after saying it will cut about 7,800 jobs worldwide as part of a
restructuring program announced last year. The cuts will include
3,300 in Germany, which is considered the powerhouse of the
European economy. Siemens shares were off 1.4% in Frankfurt.
Shares of Fresenius SE lost 2% after Jefferies cut its rating on
the health-care group to hold from buy.
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