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European shares wobble as miners fall
Banks advance ahead of U.S. vote; UBS to axe another 2,000 jobs
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
Last Update: 3:40 AM ET Oct 3, 2008
LONDON (MarketWatch) - European shares struggled for direction on Friday, with miners falling ahead of more U.S. jobs data due later in the session, offsetting gains in the banking sector ahead of another vote on a U.S. plan to bail out the financial sector.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index edged down 0.1% to 253.63, as miners including Rio Tinto RTP, down 1.9%, and Antofagasta , down 4.9%, extended losses from the previous session.
The sector fell sharply on Thursday after U.S. jobless claims near 500,000 and factory orders recording their steepest fall in two years highlighted a weaker economic backdrop.
More clues on the health of the U.S. economy will be available later Friday when U.S. nonfarm payroll data is released.
Employers probably eliminated 110,000 net jobs in September, the steepest loss since early 2003, economists said. Such a decline would represent the nation's ninth consecutive month of job losses, totaling more than 600,000. Read more on U.S. payrolls.
On a national level, the U.K. FTSE 100 index lost 0.1% to 4,866.47, the German DAX 30 index rose 0.2% to 5,672.87 and the French CAC-40 index fell 0.1% to 3,960.77.
U. S, stocks fell steeply Thursday, with concerns about the economy offsetting hopes that a $700 billion plan to bail out financials will pass Congress on Friday. The plan was approved by the Senate earlier in the week. Read more on U.S. shares.
Banks advanced for a second day in Europe on Friday, with Societe Generale up 1.3% and Barclays BCS up 1.6%.
Swiss bank UBS UBS climbed 3.6% after it said that it will cut a further 2,000 jobs in its investment banking business as it exits or cuts back operations in several markets.
The group said it will exit commodities trading, excluding precious metals, and will substantially cut its real estate and proprietary trading units.
UBS shares performed strongly on Thursday after it said that that it expects to report a small profit in the third quarter after four consecutive quarterly losses.
InBev shares dropped 5.8%.
The brewer said that cost of sales per hectoliter will be slightly ahead of its upper end guidance of 5% to 6% for the year, though it's expected to improve in the fourth quarter as commodity prices ease. Operating margins will see a "slight contraction" during the third quarter.
Regal Petroleum shot up 42% to 118 pence after a report in the Daily Telegraph that Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A has offered about 600 million pounds, or 300 pence a share.
Shell shares slipped 0.1%.
Shares of German pay-TV group Premiere tumbled 48% after saying it expects to lose between 40 million euros to 70 million euros in 2008 before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, excluding a possible gain from further sales of 2010 World Cup broadcast rights. It also reclassified its subscriber base.
CFO Alexander Teschner resigned, to be replaced by CEO Mark Williams on an interim basis.
Premiere is 25% held by News Corp NWS, which also owns MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.
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