European Stock Futures Decline; St. James’s May Retreat

By Sofia Horta e Costa 

European stock-index futures retreated before a report that may show U.K. manufacturing output stalled in January. U.S. futures were little changed, while Asian shares dropped.

St. James’s Place Plc may drop after Lloyds Banking Group Plc reduced its stake in the wealth-management business. Pirelli & C. SpA might be active after forecasting 2013 earnings that fell short of analysts’ estimates. Sanofi may move after a French labor union said the drugmaker lost an appeal court ruling on job cuts in the country. Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index expiring this month slipped 0.3 percent to 2,712 at 7:40 a.m. in London. Contracts on the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index decreased 0.1 percent. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.2 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.5 percent.

The Stoxx 600 (SXXP) rallied 2.3 percent last week, the biggest advance in two months, as employers in the U.S. increased payrolls more than forecast and optimism mounted that central banks will continue to stimulate their economies. The index closed at the highest level since June 2008.

U.K. manufacturing production was unchanged in January after increasing 1.6 percent in December, economists estimated before a report today. Total industrial production in the European Union’s third-largest economy rose 0.1 percent in January after gaining 1.1 percent the previous month, economists predicted. The Office for National Statistics will release the data at 9:30 a.m. in London.

Cyprus Summit

European Union leaders will meet at a summit in Brussels on March 14-15 to discuss the terms of a bailout for Cyprus. These include the nation’s debt sustainability and whether to impose losses on depositors.

St James’s Place might slide after Lloyds said it sold 101.7 million shares in the company. Britain’s biggest mortgage lender said it will realize a gain of 400 million pounds ($596 million) from the sale.

Pirelli may be active after Europe’s third-largest tiremaker forecast earnings before interest and taxes of 810 million euros ($1.1 billion) to 850 million euros. That compared with the average analyst estimate of 875 million euros in a Bloomberg survey.

Sanofi may be active. An appeal court ruled against France’s biggest drugmaker on how it consulted with workers at its research and development division, according to the labor union. The ruling applies to a portion of the 900 job cuts announced in September, Sanofi said.

Antofagasta Plc (ANTO) may rise after the copper producer controlled by Chile’s Luksic family proposed a dividend of 98.5 cents a share. The average analyst estimate had called for a dividend of 58 cents.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sofia Horta e Costa in London atshortaecosta@bloomberg.net

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