EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Pull Back From Six-year Highs

By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

MADRID (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets headed south in early action on Wednesday, with earnings reports and broker action weighing on several shares. Heavyweight Seadrill Ltd. dropped after a downgrade, and Jeronimo Martins SGPS SA fell on earnings, while Airbus Group NV rose after results.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index , which closed at a six-year high on Tuesday, fell 0.3% to 337.44.

Heavyweight Seadrill weighed on the main index with a nearly 3% loss after Nomura cut it to neutral from buy. The re-rating came after Tuesday's results for the offshore driller, which provided a muted outlook for the deepwater-drilling market in 2014 and said there would be limited scope to lift its quarterly dividend.

Also weighing, drug maker Novo Nordisk AS (NVO) dropped 1.5%.

Jeronimo Martins topped the decliners list with a nearly 6% drop, after the Portuguese retailer reported 2013 results that missed analysts forecasts.

Banks were also among decliners, with Credit Suisse Group AG (CS) down 2.5% after being criticized by U.S. senators over its role in tax evasion, and UBS AG (UBS) down 1.3%.

On the upside, shares of Swiss Life Holding AG jumped more than 5% after the insurer raised its dividend 22%. It also posted net income for 2013 that beat forecasts of analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Shares of Bouygues SA rose nearly 3%. The media-to-construction conglomerate posted a net loss in 2013 after writing down the value of its 29% stake in Alstom SA .The company said it expects sales in 2014 to remain at the same level as in 2013.

Within the main indexes, the German DAX 30 index fell 0.2% to 9,680, while the French CAC 40 index dropped 0.3% to 4,401.11, and the FTSE 100 index moved down 0.4% to 6,803.15.

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