EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Struggle To Break Grip Of Stronger Euro

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

Stoxx 600 on course for weekly loss

European stocks fell Friday, weighed by strength in the euro, as the flow of corporate earnings results failed to provide a lift.

The Stoxx Europe 600 declined 0.4% to 382.66, but dipped between small losses and gains for most of the morning.

"The strength of the euro does appear to be acting as a bit of a headwind for European stocks as they look to close the week sharply lower, in contrast to the performance of U.K. and U.S. stocks this week," wrote CMC Markets' chief market analyst Michael Hewson on Friday.

The Stoxx 600 was on track for a weekly decline of 1%, while London's FTSE 100 looks set for a rise (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-edges-up-reaches-for-a-weekly-win-2017-07-21) of 1.5% for the week.

Euphoric euro: At the same time, the euro was trading at a two-year high against the dollar, buying $1.1650. A stronger euro can put pressure on sales to overseas customers by European exporters, and hurt shares of those companies.

The shared currency was holding well above the $1.16 handle captured on Thursday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the central bank will continue its pace of bond buying until December. He said policy makers will discuss the program in the "autumn," but didn't say whether that meant the ECB's September policy meeting.

Read:Nobody told the euro that Mario Draghi was dovish (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nobody-told-the-euro-that-mario-draghi-was-dovish-2017-07-20)

"There was nothing in the overall narrative [from Draghi] that came across as remotely hawkish," said Hewson. "Sadly for him the currency markets weren't buying it, and the euro, after initially dipping, roared back in the afternoon session."

Stock movers: Investors had plenty of corporate financial updates to sort through on Friday.

Shares of Philips Lighting NV (LIGHT.AE) tumbled 7.3% after the Dutch company posted a decline in second-quarter sales to 1.70 billion euros and a fall in comparable sales. Profit, however, was higher.

Meanwhile, Valeo SA shares (FR.FR) dropped 4.8% as the French car-parts manufacturer's first-half sales increased to EUR9.46 billion, but still fell short of expectations of EUR9.56 billion from a Reuters survey of analysts.

On the upside, Vodafone (VOD.LN) picked up 1.1% after the mobile phone services provider reiterated its earnings outlook for the full year (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/vodafone-revenue-drops-on-forex-effects-2017-07-21).

Meanwhile, Paysafe Group PLC (PAYS.LN) leapt 7.2% after the British electronic payments company said Friday it received a possible all-cash buyout offer (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/paysafe-lands-all-cash-offer-from-blackstone-cvc-2017-07-21) from funds managed by Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners. The bid represented an 8.9% premium to Thursday's closing price of GBP5.42 a share.

Individual indexes: The U.K.'s FTSE 100 was swaying between gains and losses. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ftse-100-edges-up-reaches-for-a-weekly-win-2017-07-21)

France's CAC 40 index dropped 0.7% to 5,164.68. In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 index , which is heavily weighted by exporters, fell 0.7% to 12,366.80.

Spain's IBEX 35 fell 0.8% to 10,472, and Italy's FTSE MIB declined 0.5%.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 21, 2017 06:31 ET (10:31 GMT)

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