FT.com European bourses poised for opening losses Friday July 22, 2:30 am ET By Neil Dennis
European stocks were set for opening losses on Friday, with technology stocks in focus after weak results from the US as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) failed to meet guidance expectations and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced weak revenue growth.
Spread betters were expecting the three main European indices - London's FTSE 100, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax and the CAC-40 in Paris - to open around 10 points lower.
Caution was also likely to be exercised after Thursday's turbulent session following the attempted bomb attacks in London and after the People's Bank of China revalued the renminbi.
Stocks in the US fell, leaving the Dow Jones Industrial Average off 0.6 per cent at 10,627.77 and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.5 per cent to 2,178.6. In after hours trade Microsoft fell nearly 2 per cent after its revenue guidance for fiscal first quarter failed to meet the market's expectations, while Google shed more than 5 per cent after reporting slowing revenue growth and shrinking margins.
This followed weak results from Finland's Nokia earlier in the day. The world's biggest mobile phone handset manufacturer fell more than 10 per cent on Friday and looked likely to be among the fallers again on Friday as JPMorgan downgraded the stock to "underweight" from "neutral".
The broker said: "As we had feared, pressure on ASPs (average selling price) and margins more than offset the benefits of higher phone volumes in the second quarter", adding that the stock looked vulnerable to further falls.
Among the few companies reporting earnings, Schering, the German drugmaker, announced a 17 per cent rise in second-quarter operating profit on growth in sales of oral contraceptives and thanks to continuing cost cuts.
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