By Jonathan Morgan - Nov 30, 2012 11:16 AM GMT+0400
European stock futures were little changed after the Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed to the highest level in 17 months as investors awaited a report on American consumer spending. Asian shares rose while U.S. futures fell.
TNT Express NV (TNTE) may move as United Parcel Service Inc. made concessions to European Union regulators reviewing its 5.16 billion-euro ($6.7 billion) takeover. Hugo Boss AG (BOSS), the German luxury-clothing maker controlled by Permira Advisers, may drop after Goldman Sachs Group Inc. downgraded the stock.
Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo, former member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), said Spain may escape a bailout, as the country has already confounded expectations by continuing to raise its own financing this year. Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg
Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index (SX5E), a benchmark for the euro area, rose less than 0.1 percent to 2,580 at 7:14 a.m. in London. Contracts on the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index fell less than 0.1 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures dropped 0.1 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.4 percent.
Congressional Republicans dug in to fight President Barack Obama’s plan to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. Republicans complained that a plan outlined yesterday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was little more than a rehash of old proposals, setting the stage for more contentious negotiations over the coming weeks as the year-end deadline approaches for more than $600 billion in spending cuts and tax increases to kick in.
Obama is scheduled to visit a manufacturing plant in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, today to emphasize his call for an extension of George W. Bush-era tax rates for middle-income households. Speaker of the House John Boehner said to reporters in Washington yesterday that there’s been “no substantive progress” in budget talks.
‘Discordant Headlines’
“Traders are becoming numb to the discordant headlines and instead treading cautiously,” Jonathan Sudaria, a trader at Capital Spreads in London, wrote in an e-mail.
Spending by U.S. consumers probably stagnated in October as income gains slowed and superstorm Sandy deterred those in the Northeast from shopping at malls and car dealerships, economists said before a report today.
Household purchases were unchanged last month, the weakest reading since June, after advancing 0.8 percent in September, according to the median estimate of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The report may also show incomes grew 0.2 percent after increasing 0.4 percent in September.
Former European Central Bank Executive Board member Jose Manuel Gonzalez-Paramo said Spain may escape a bailout, as the country has already confounded expectations by continuing to raise its own financing this year.
‘Good News’
“It is by no means excluded that a bailout will not be requested, if a sequence of good news is produced in terms of the deficit and other things,” Gonzalez-Paramo, 54, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in London yesterday.
TNT Express may move. UPS, the world’s biggest package- delivery company, made concessions to regulators reviewing its purchase of TNT Express, a deal that would double its size in Europe. The proposed remedies include the sale of some business units and the granting of access to air networks to competitors, the companies said in a joint statement. The deadline for the European Commission’s investigation was extended to Feb. 5.
Hugo Boss may decline after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to neutral from buy.
Galp Energia SGPS SA (GALP), Portugal’s biggest oil company, may be active as UBS added the stock to its most preferred list.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt atjmorgan157@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net
