Europe’s main markets plunged into the red Friday afternoon as negative sentiment spread across the Atlantic as the US earnings season gets underway. Results from banks Citigroup and Bank of America and the conglomerate GE were poorly received, sending US shares plunging. That sent European banks, such as Credit Agricole and Credit Suisse into the red.
Banks had earlier been in demand after Jean-Claude Junker, the president of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, said he doesn’t expect any ‘catastrophes’ when the stress test results for European banks get published next week.
When asked by Austrian newspaper Kurier if he expects some banks to fail, he said: "I am not expecting any big catastrophes." He added that the eurozone’s single currency remains strong. “"The euro will outlive its critics, it is not in danger," he said.
Across the markets, the Dax in Frankfurt fell 109 points to 6,040, with the Cac in Paris falling 81 points to 3,500. The Swiss market dropped 106 points to 6,184.
Mobile phone giant Sony Ericsson swung to a second-quarter pre-tax profit of €31m compared with a loss of €283m a year earlier. The figure was better than forecasts of about €16m. Revenue for the quarter rose 4.3% to €1.76bn euros, while average selling price rose 31% to €160. Sony Ericsson maintained its forecast of slight growth in units in the global handset market in 2010.French supermarket group Carrefour said its second-quarter sales rose 6.3% at current exchange rates to €24.9bn.
No comments:
Post a Comment