EUROPE MARKETS: Stoxx 600 Erases Weekly Gain After Choppy Day

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets ended a volatile session on a downbeat note on Friday, with the benchmark stock index erasing its weekly gain.

The weakness came as the closely watched U.S. nonfarm-payrolls report missed expectations, although the underlying numbers indicated that labor market is on firm footing. Read: It may have been the best October jobs report ever

The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.5% to close at 335.25, ending with a 0.5% weekly slide.

France's CAC 40 index slid 0.9% to 4,189.89 for a 1% weekly drop. Germany's DAX 30 index fell 0.9% to 9,291.83 and closed out the week 0.4% lower. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index bucked the negative trend and added 0.3% to 6,567.24 boosted by oil firms and miners. The FTSE gained 0.3% for the week.

The euro (EURUSD) recovered slightly after a slide on Thursday on the back of comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi that the central bank is ready to adopt new easing measures if needed. The shared currency traded at $1.2426, up from $1.2376 late Thursday.

Data: The keenly watched U.S. nonfarm-payrolls report missed forecasts, showing that 214,000 were added to the economy in October.

Although the figure is below a forecast of 243,000, revisions made to the September figures and a notch down in unemployment rate to 5.8%, were viewed as positives.

Still, the U.S. markets edged lower.

"I think there's a tinge of disappointment," said Michael Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets. "Weekly jobless claims have recently been below 300,000, the employment component of the ISM report was good this week, so markets were pricing in a higher [nonfarm] number."

In European data, industrial-production numbers from Germany missed forecasts for September. Output from factories rose 1.4% month-on-month less than the 2% expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, export data were much stronger than expected, jumping 5.5% in September and nearly making up for the 5.8% slide in August.

French industrial production was flat in September on the month, which a bit better than the 0.2% decline expected.

Major movers: Vestas Wind Systems AS jumped 17% after the wind turbine manufacturer raised its full-year earnings forecast and swung to a profit in the third quarter.

Allianz SE climbed 3.6% after the German insurer increased its dividend-payout ratio.

Moving closer to financial tax: Eleven European Union countries that have vowed to impose taxed on financial transactions have taken a step closer to finding a compromise all can agree on. Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan who led a debate on Friday said the countries have agreed on the scope of taxation, but that discussions are still ongoing on taxing derivatives.

Meanwhile, Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA is formally seeking a buyer. Italy's third largest bank, and the world's oldest, was one of the worst performers in Europe's "stress test" of the financial system.

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