UPDATE: NYSE Euronext Swings To $1.3 Billion Loss On Write-Downs

By Steve Goldstein

LONDON (Dow Jones) -- NYSE Euronext on Monday reported that it swung to a fourth-quarter loss of $1.34 billion after writing down the value of the Euronext exchanges it bought at the height of exchange consolidation, but its top executive said clients are becoming more optimistic about the economy and markets.

The company said it will continue to pay a dividend, but it ended its stock buyback plan in order to preserve capital. The firms bought back 13.4 million shares during the fourth quarter, for a total cost of $348 million.

NYSE Euronext , the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, the Euronext stock exchanges and the Liffe futures exchange, posted a loss of $1.34 billion, or $5.06 a share.

The results were hurt by impairment of certain goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets related to the merger of NYSE Group and Euronext, as "adverse equity-market conditions" caused a "material decline in industry market multiples in the latter part of 2008."

The NYSE bought Euronext in April 2007 in a deal valued at about $14 billion.

NYSE Euronext earned $156 million in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Sentiment beginning to turn on economy, stocks

During a conference call on Monday to discuss results, Chief Executive Officer Duncan Niederauer said that while the prevailing sentiment is that the current stock market is a trading one and not an investing one, sentiment is headed in the right direction.

"Despite the prevailing market conditions, many executives are feeling much more positive about the market than just a couple of months ago when most were extremely pessimistic looking into 2009 09 or just not looking forward at all," the executive said. "My sense is that despite a January which was the worst ever recorded by the Dow and S & P, people are starting to turn the corner."

In the same presentation executives said the firms remains on track to record $120 million of cost savings in 2009, associated with it purchase of the American Stock Exchange last year.

The firm also said that it has trimmed the American Stock Exchange staff by 48%, to 225, since it closed the deal.

Volume, revenue and profit fall

On an adjusted basis, NYSE Euronext's profit fell to 52 cents a share from 65 cents a share, it said. The dollar's strengthening versus the euro accounted for 7 cents a share of negative impact on earnings. Planned investments for the NYSE Liffe U.S. and NYSE Amex accounted for another 6-cent hit.

Revenue fell 2% to $683 million as higher volumes were offset by lower prices. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected profit of 56 cents a share on revenue of $1.2 billion.

"The main drivers behind lower than expected net revenues and net transaction fees were higher liquidity payments and routing and clearing fees," Sandler O'Neill analyst Rich Repetto said Monday morning.

Separately, the NYSE reported January trading volumes, with U.S. cash-products volume down 9%, European cash-products volume down 29.5% and European derivatives volume down 18%.

In morning Paris trade, NYSE Euronext shares dropped 6%, and the fell a similar amount in pre-open trading in the U.S.

The stock is down 65% over the past 12 months, compared with a 39% fall for the Nasdaq OMX Group , a 64% fall for the Deutsche Boerse and a 74% drop for the London Stock Exchange .