By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets moved lower with
U.S. equities in afternoon action on Friday after the highly
anticipated U.S. jobs report didn't thrill.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.7% to 334.93, setting it on
track for a 0.5% weekly slide.
France's CAC 40 index slid 0.8% to 4,192.26 while Germany's DAX
30 index dropped 0.8% to 9,305.96. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index added
0.3% to 6,569.79, boosted by oil firms and miners.
The euro (EURUSD) recovered slightly after a slide on Thursday
on the back of comments from ECB President Mario Draghi that the
central bank is ready to adopt new easing measures if needed. The
shared currency traded at $1.2412, up from $1.2376 late
Thursday.
Data: The keenly watched nonfarm payrolls report disappointed
most analysts and investors, showing that 214,000 were added to the
economy in October.
Although the figure is below a forecast of 243,000, revisions
made to the September figures and a notch down in unemployment rate
to 5.8%, were viewed as positives.
Still, the U.S. markets edged lower.
"I think there's a tinge of disappointment," said Michael
Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets. "Weekly jobless claims have
recently been below 300,000, the employment component of the ISM
report was good this week, so markets were pricing in a higher
[nonfarm] number."
In European data, industrial-production numbers from Germany
missed forecasts for September. Output from factories rose 1.4%
month-on-month less than the 2% expected by economists polled by
The Wall Street Journal.
Meanwhile, export data were much stronger than expected, jumping
5.5% in September and nearly making up for the 5.8% slide in
August.
French industrial production was flat in September on the month,
which a bit better than the 0.2% decline expected.
Major movers: Vestas Wind Systems AS jumped 14% after the wind
turbine manufacturer raised its full-year earnings forecast and
swung to a profit in the third quarter.
Allianz SE climbed 4.7% after the German insurer increased its
dividend-payout ratio.
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