European stocks dipped on Friday, with regional indexes pausing just below recent multi-year highs, as investors looked to the January US non-farm payrolls report due later in the session.
Shares in Tate & Lyle were the biggest losers across Europe, sinking 14 per cent after the British ingredients company said annual profits would be below the range it forecast in September, hit by a weak performance in sweeteners in its third quarter.
Danish freight forwarder
Shares in Norwegian oil firm
“Impressive fourth-quarter production and dividend outlook. Management shows great confidence in the cash flow generation and balance sheet,’’ said Sparebank 1 Markets analyst Kristoffer Dahlberg.
The sharp drop in oil prices that started in mid-2014 has forced a lot of oil companies to book big write-downs, while a number of oil services companies have suspended their dividend.
Shares in Swiss telecoms company Sunrise made a solid market debut, rising 5 per cent above its IPO price of 68 Swiss francs.
Backed by European private equity fund CVC, Sunrise is raising 1.36 billion francs with the listing, which went ahead despite a surge in the franc after the central bank scrapped the currency’s cap against the euro.
At 0906 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.2 per cent at 1,484.54 points, trading in a tight range ahead of the US jobs data, due at 1330 GMT.
US jobs data
Economists polled by Reuters expected US employers to have added 234,000 workers in January, below December's increase of 252,000.
The jobless rate was expected to remain at a 6-1/2-year low of 5.6 per cent, while average hourly earnings were forecast to show a rise of 0.3 per cent following the previous month’s fall of 0.2 percent.
“It’s a bit of a double-edged sword again. A very good figure would be seen as negative for the market, changing the outlook for interest rate hikes,’’ said Alexandre Baradez, chief market analyst at IG France.
“It will also be interesting to see the potential damage from the drop in oil prices on the jobs in the US energy sector, with all the cuts in investments.’’
Overall, Europe’s earnings season has so far been quite positive.
About 60 companies listed on the broad STOXX Europe 600 have reported results, with 61 per cent exceeding analyst forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. In a typical quarter, 48 per cent of STOXX 600 companies beat estimates.