EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Head For Weekly Loss Ahead Of U.S. Data

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets headed lower on Friday, with the benchmark index heading for its first weekly loss since January, as investors remained cautious ahead of nonfarm-payrolls data from the U.S.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.4% to 335.92, setting it on track for a 0.6% loss on the week. On Thursday, the benchmark nudged a small gain.

Leading decliners on Friday, shares of Getinge AB tumbled 18% after the medical-technology company said its profit trend for the first quarter will be weak due to a lower level of invoicing.

Shares of Fugro NV slid 5.2% after the oil-field-services firm posted 2013 earnings that missed expectations.

On a more upbeat note, shares of Air France-KLM SA jumped 5.6% after the airline said passenger traffic rose 1.4% in February, boosted by a rise in both long and medium-haul flights.

Aside from corporate news, the highly anticipated nonfarm-payrolls report from the U.S. was the main event on Friday. After two sluggish readings for December and January, investors are braced for another soft jobs report likely to be distorted by the extremely harsh winter in large parts of the country. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect 140,000 new jobs to have been added to the economy in February, which is better than the disappointing 113,000 in January, but still below the 2013 average. The data come out at 1:30 p.m. in London, or 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly higher open on Wall Street.

On the numbers front in Europe, data showed Germany's industrial sector was off to a good start to the year. Industrial production output rose 0.8% in January, exceeding analyst expectations.

Among country-specific indexes, most bourses traded lower, weighed by heavyweight drug companies. Shares of Novartis AG fell 0.7%, GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) lost 0.5%, and Novo Nordisk AS (NVO) gave up 0.8%.

The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index declined 0.3% to 6,769.70, while France's CAC 40 index slipped 0.3% to 4,403.08. Germany's DAX 30 index lost 0.7% to 9,472.75.

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