By Namitha Jagadeesh - Jul 10, 2012
10:36 AM GMT+0400
European stock-index futures were little changed as worse-than-expected Chinese imports offset efforts by euro-region governments to support Spanish banks. U.S. futures and Asian shares dropped.
BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world’s largest mining company, declined in Sydney trading afterChina’s imports grew at about half the pace expected by economists. ASML Holding NV (ASML)may advance after Intel Corp. said it will invest as much as $4.1 billion in the company.
Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index expiring in September slipped less than 0.1 percent to 2,225 at 7:34 a.m. in London, having earlier fallen as much as 0.3 percent. Contracts on the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index increased 0.1 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures lost 0.4 percent, as did the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.
European governments agreed to lend 30 billion euros ($37 billion) to Spain by the end of July, with the aim of eventually using the euro-area bailout fund to recapitalize banks directly, instead of burdening the Spanish government with the debts, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said.
The initial cash will “be mobilized as a contingency in case of urgent needs in the Spanish banking sector,” Juncker told reporters early today in Brussels after chairing a nine- hour meeting of euro-region finance ministers. The program “will succeed in addressing the remaining weakness in the Spanish banking sector.”
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index declined for a fourth day yesterday as Spanish 10-year bond yields climbed to more than 7 percent and Japanese machinery orders fell the most in a decade.
China Imports
China’s imports rose less than expected in June, pushing the trade surplus to a three-year high and adding pressure on the government to boost economic stimulus.
Inbound shipments increased 6.3 percent from a year earlier, the customs bureau said, compared with the 11 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of 32 economists. Export growth slowed to 11.3 percent and the trade surplus rose to $31.7 billion.
In the U.S., Alcoa Inc. began the second-quarter earnings season late yesterday. The nation’s largest aluminum producer said profit excluding charges related to a proposed settlement of Aluminium Bahrain BSC’s bribery lawsuit and other items was 6 cents a share, compared with the 5-cent average of 19 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
BHP Billiton dropped 0.9 percent to A$31.21 in Sydney as the world’s second-largest economy shows signs of slowing.
ASML may climb after Intel said it will take an initial 10 percent stake in the Dutch company for about $2.1 billion, and later another 5 percent for about $1 billion. ASML will also get another $1 billion in stages, the world’s largest chipmaker said yesterday.
Linde AG (LIN) may decline after offering to sell as many as 13 million shares to help finance the acquisition of Lincare Holdings Inc.
To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London atnjagadeesh@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net
