adminIn afternoon trade, London’s FTSE 100 index of leading companies fell 0,34 percent to 6 420,91 points, while in Frankfurt the DAX 30 shed 0,28 percent to 7 811,03 points and the Paris CAC 40 slid 0,80 percent to 3 809,84.
The euro edged up to US$1,3015 from US$1,3009 late on Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 98,33 yen from 99,29.
Meanwhile, on the London Bullion Market, gold rose to US$1 462,25 an ounce compared with US$1,451 on Thursday.
The highly awaited US data showed that the Commerce Department’s first quarter growth estimate came in at a modest 2,5 percent, a rebound from the previous quarter but slower than expected.
Shortly after the announcement, Wall Street stocks opened mixed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0,07 percent, while the broad-based S&P 500 fell 0,11 percent, and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0,23 percent.
Jim O’Sullivan, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, called the report “disappointing”, having hoped for a stronger recovery from the slump at the end of last year.
He blamed an unexpected slowdown in March, and predicted stronger activity for April.
O’Sullivan and other economists were sticking to their forecasts of a pick-up in the second half of the year to a 3 percent pace.
“The sustained strength in the housing market, the pickup in consumer spending and the further advance in business capital spending . . . suggest the economy has some underlying strength,” said economist Sal Guatieri of BMO Capital Markets.
In Europe, analysts said new data, also released on Friday and suggesting that euro area credit markets remain highly dysfunctional, turned up the heat on the European Central Bank to act.
The ECB published two sets of data showing that lending activity in the 17 countries that share the euro remains at very low levels, not only because of weak demand, but also because firms are finding it difficult to obtain financing.
In company news, shares in French high-end retailer PPR slumped 6,22 percent to 167,40 euros as investors expressed disappointment at the company’s small increase in first quarter sales.
“We feared being disappointed by the publication of the quarterly sales,” said a Paris trader. “But the reality surpasses fiction, and by far.”
Sales in the January to March period rose to 2,36 billion euros, a rise of 1 percent.
Elsewhere, Spain’s third largest bank BBVA slid 1,94 percent to 7,16 euros after the lender reported a near 73 percent jump in first quarter net profits compared with the same period a year ago, boosted mainly by the divestment of non-strategic assets.
On the bonds market, Italy’s Treasury on Friday sold 8 billion euros in six-month bills at lower rates than in a similar sale last month, indicating an easing of investor nerves as talks on forming a new government drag on.
The rate demanded by investors was 0,503 percent compared to 0,831 percent on March 26 and the amount raised was the maximum targeted although demand was down from the previous auction. — AFP.
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