European stocks rose as earnings from Vodafone Group Plc and British Land Co. eased concern that measures to control the region’s debt crisis will curb economic growth. U.S. index futures advanced and Asian shares fell.
Vodafone climbed 1.4 percent after the world’s biggest mobile phone company targeted annual dividend growth of no less than 7 percent for the next three years. British Land, the U.K.’s second-largest real estate investment trust, rallied 3 percent after reporting its first annual profit in two years.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 1.1 percent to 250.93 at 8:11 a.m. in London, the first gain in three days. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.4 percent while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index slipped 0.3 percent, extending the decline from this year’s high to 9.9 percent.
“Global growth momentum is robust currently,” JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of European equity strategy Mislav Matejka wrote in a report to investors today. We expect “further earnings upgrades. The positive drivers for stocks are still tracking.”
Equity markets in the U.S. recovered earlier losses yesterday as the euro strengthened against the dollar, snapping a four-day losing streak and rebounding from its lowest level since April 2006 reached earlier in the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed a 184-point drop to finish the session 0.1 percent higher at 10,625.83.
Financial Assistance
Europe’s Stoxx 600 remains 7.8 percent lower than this year’s peak on April 15 amid concern that Greece’s debt crisis will spread. The gauge surged 4.8 percent last week after the European Union agreed to offer financial assistance worth as much as 750 billion euros ($929 billion) in a bid to stem the weakness in the region’s currency.
“Not everyone will accelerate consolidation in a very uniform way,” European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters today in Brussels after a meeting of ministers from the 16 euro countries. “That would lead to a very restrictive fiscal stance for the euro area as a whole, which would risk depressing economic growth.”
The ministers will meet again on May 21 to work on “a certain number of technical details” of the unprecedented emergency lending mechanism, said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the Brussels meeting.
Investor Confidence
In the U.S., builders probably broke ground in April on the most homes since 2008 as buyers took advantage of a tax credit before its expiration, economists said before a Commerce Department report due at 8:30 a.m. in Washington.
Vodafone advanced 1.4 percent to 138.3 pence after full- year operating profit rose as the company cut jobs and signed network-sharing agreements with other operators to lower costs.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased to 14.7 billion pounds ($21.2 billion) from 14.5 billion pounds a year earlier, the company said. Analysts had estimated Ebitda of 14.8 billion pounds, according to a Bloomberg survey.
British Land
British Land gained 3 percent to 446.4 pence. Net income for the year ended March 31 was 1.14 billion pounds compared with a loss of 3.88 billion pounds a year earlier.
Of Stoxx 600 companies that have reported earnings since April 12, about 64 percent have beaten analysts’ estimates for net income, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the U.S., more than 80 percent of companies in the S&P 500 have topped projections.
Delhaize Group SA climbed 1.5 percent to 64.88 euros after BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research upgraded the shares to “buy” from “neutral.”
Regus Plc plunged 15 percent to 96.5 pence after the world’s largest operator of serviced offices said the U.K. remains its most difficult region and early signs of improvement seen in the first quarter have “lost some momentum.”the music of sadness
the strings of the lingering heart
the seagulls and the waves
Her wishful face
haunts my dreamshttp://assemblergames.com/forums
http://www.dienanh.net/forums
http://www.kaktos.co.il/forum
http://www.sitedeals.nl
http://www.battlebet.ru
