By Sarah Turner
European shares pulled back from 18-month highs on Friday, as
earnings optimism faded a bit and a volcanic ash cloud disrupted
air travel for a second day.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index declined 0.3% to 271.36 following two
sessions of gains.
Earnings from companies such as Intel helped shares to gain
early in the week but Google and AMD shares slipped in after-hours
trading late Thursday after reporting results.
European technology shares were weak on Friday, with ASM
International shares down 1.8%.
Shares of Nokia (NOK), which is due to report results next week,
lost 1.3%. Ericsson (ERICY) shares edged up 0.1% as Sony Ericsson
Mobile Communications said it swung to a first-quarter profit.
Airlines were also struggling, with SAS down 1.6%, Deutsche
Lufthansa shares down 1.5% and Air France-KLM shares down 1.7% as a
volcanic ash cloud moving over Europe from Iceland continued to
halt traffic.
The U.K. FTSE 100 index lost 0.2% to 5,816.10, the German DAX
index declined 0.2% to 6,276.28 and the French CAC-40 index traded
down 0.2% at 4,056.87.
Losses from technology stocks also pressured shares in Asian
trading, while U.S. stock futures were pointing to mild losses on
Wall Street, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures down 30
points. General Electric and Bank of America are set to report
Friday.
The euro (CUR_EURUSD) declined 0.4% to $1.3526 against the
dollar, with Greece's fiscal deficit problems still a concern,
while sterling (CUR_GBPUSD) lost 0.5% to $1.5400 after an opinion
poll gave Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg victory in last
night's televised debate.
Notable gainers in Europe included French supermarket giant
Carrefour , which climbed 3.4% after it posted a 5.5% increase in
first-quarter revenue to 23.96 billion euros and said that it will
buy back up to 6% of its shares.
Latin American growth of 9.6% and Asian growth of 1.6% helped
offset a 0.6% downturn in France and a 2.4% drop from Europe
ex-France, the firm said.
"Carrefour's first quarter was encouraging, with end demand
beginning to stabilize across G4 markets," said James Grzinic, an
analyst at Jefferies.
Shares of Swedish industrial group SKF jumped 7.5%.
It brought the announcement of its "well ahead of market
estimates" first-quarter results forward after pretax profit jumped
to 1.5 billion Swedish kroner, from 531 kroner last year, as sales
at its automotive business improved.
-Sarah Turner; 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com