European stocks slid, dragging the Stoxx Europe 600 Index from a two-week high, as two Federal Reserve officials said the central bank shouldn’t act to protect equity investors. U.S. index futures and Asian shares retreated.
BNP Paribas (BNP) SA led banks lower after a report that U.S. regulators are stepping up scrutiny of Europe’s largest lenders on concern that the sovereign debt crisis may lead to funding problems. SABMiller Plc (SAB) fell 2.6 percent after Foster’s Group Ltd. rejected its A$9.5 billion ($10 billion) takeover bid as too low. Holcim Ltd. (HOLN) sank 5.8 percent as the world’s second- biggest cement maker reported profit that missed estimates.
The benchmark Stoxx 600 lost 2 percent to 233.32 at 9:59 a.m. in London. The gauge has still climbed 4.3 percent from this year’s low on Aug. 10, reducing the decline from this year’s peak in February to 20 percent.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index tumbled 1.6 percent today and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slid 1.5 percent after the benchmark gauge for U.S. equities rose 0.1 percent yesterday.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s pledge last week to keep interest rates near zero until mid-2013 was “inappropriate policy at an inappropriate time,” Charles Plosser, president of the Fed Bank of Philadelphia, said yesterday in a Bloomberg Radio interview.
Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said the central bank shouldn’t enact policy to protect stock investors. Both officials dissented from the Fed’s Aug. 9 statement.
U.S. Economy
A report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington may show the number of new U.S. job seekers applying for unemployment insurance rose by 5,000 to 400,000 in the week ending Aug. 13, according to a Bloomberg survey of economists.
Separate releases at 10 a.m. may show that sales of previously owned houses climbed to a 4.9 million annual pace in July from a seven-month low in June and the Conference Board’s index of leading U.S. indicators grew 0.2 percent last month after a 0.3 percent gain the prior period.
BNP Paribas, France’s biggest lender, led a gauge of banks in the Stoxx 600 to a second day of losses, falling 2.2 percent to 35.90 euros. Banco Santander SA (SAN), Spain’s largest bank, declined 1.9 percent to 6.43 euros.
The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. regulators are stepping up scrutiny of local operations for Europe’s largest banks. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been holding talks with the lenders and sought information about their access to funds to maintain operations in the U.S., the Journal said, citing people it didn’t identify.
Swedish Banks
Swedbank AB (SWEDA) slipped 4 percent to 88.10 kronor in Stockholm. Nordea Bank AB, Sweden’s biggest bank fell 3.4 percent to 57.05 kronor.
Swedish banks must do more to prepare for a deterioration in Europe’s debt crisis that could freeze interbank markets and cut off funding, said Lars Frisell, chief economist at the country’s financial regulator.
“It won’t take much for the interbank market to collapse,” Frisell said yesterday in an interview in Stockholm. “It’s not that serious at the moment but it feels like it could very easily become that way and that everything will freeze.”
SABMiller retreated 2.6 percent to 2,083.5 pence after the board of Australian brewer Foster’s rejected its takeover bid. The London-based brewer may have to raise its offer by 6 percent to A$5.20 a share to win over investors, according to the median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Holcim Falls
Holcim dropped 5.8 percent to 45.12 Swiss francs after reporting second-quarter net income of 347 million francs ($437 million), missing the 373.3 million-franc average estimate of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sales dropped 11 percent to 5.49 billion francs, compared with an estimate of 5.56 billion francs.
Royal Boskalis Westminster NV plunged 11 percent to 23.65 euros, the largest drop since 2008. The world’s biggest dredging company said first-half net income fell to 114 million euros ($164 million) from 124 million euros a year earlier. The average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of five analysts was for profit of 116 million euros.
Coloplast A/S, the world’s largest maker of ostomy and urology products, rose 7.4 percent to 780.50 kroner in Copenhagen after reporting third-quarter net income of 485 million kroner ($94 million), beating the average analyst estimate of 433 million kroner.
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