PHOTO
* Yen rebound weighs on dollar
* Earnings, banks drag European stocks lower
* Investor caution supports bonds
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - A promising start to the week by stocks fizzled out on Wednesday after a series of disappointing earnings reports. Profit-taking hit the dollar after it reached a two-week high on Tuesday.
Germany's DAX
.GDAXI
snapped a four-day winning streak and the broader FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares
.FTEU3
erased much of Tuesday's rise, which was the biggest in three weeks.
U.S. futures pointed to a fall of around a third of one percent on Wall Street
ESc1
SPc1
. Shares in Walt Disney Co.
DIS.N
were down nearly 5 percent in pre-market trade after reporting a rare earnings miss late on Tuesday
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N187598
.
"I'm still in the bearish camp, and any rallies on the market are for selling," said Terry Torrison, managing director at Monaco-based McLaren Securities. "Some company results have beaten expectations, but you have to remember by just how much some of these expectations had already been lowered."
Financial services were among the biggest losers in Europe. Their 2 percent fall
.SX7P
was led by a 10 percent plunge in Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International
RBIV.VI
after it said it would look into a possible merger with RZB.
Shares in outdoor advertising firm JC Decaux
JCDX.PA
slumped nearly 10 percent after it issued a weak second-quarter outlook. Several investment banks cut their ratings and price targets on the stock.
The FTSEuroFirst 300, German DAX and fFench CAC 40
.FCHI
were all down around 1 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 percent lower.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS
also fell 0.1 percent. It has risen only one day in the last three weeks and on Tuesday it hit an eight-week low.
Japanese shares ended flat, with the Nikkei
.N225
relinquishing earlier gains as a rally in the yen gathered steam.
MSCI's broad gauge of global stocks
.MIWD00000PUS
fell, too. On Tuesday it had climbed nearly 1.1 percent, its best session in about a month, in large part driven by the S&P 500's
.SPX
best day in two months, a 1.3 percent rise.
MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT
In currency markets, the dollar weakened, led by losses against the yen. The U.S. currency had risen to a two-week high after an economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Reuters on Tuesday that Japan would intervene if the yen strengthened to 90 to 95 per dollar.
But dealers locked in profits on Wednesday, pushing the dollar down 0.7 percent to 108.50 yen
JPY=
. Last week the Japanese currency hit an 18-month high of 105.55 per dollar.
"The recent rise in dollar/yen might be seen as a victory for the Bank of Japan but, perhaps unfortunately, this looks more like a marathon than a sprint," said Steve Barrow, head of G10 strategy at Standard Bank.
The euro
EUR=
rose 0.2 percent on the day to $1.1390. Last week, it traded at $1.16, its highest this year.
The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies
.DXY
was down a quarter of one percent at 94.070, easing back from Tuesday's two-week high of 94.150.
Bonds remained well-supported, indicating investors were wary about riskier assets in an environment of sluggish global growth.
An auction of three-year U.S. notes on Tuesday was received well. Yields on 10-year debt
US10YT=RR
were at 1.75 percent, not far away from a 2016 low of 1.53 percent.
German government bonds also reflected the cautious undertone. Ten-year yields
EU10YT=RR
were down a basis point at 0.11 percent.
Longer-dated yields on peripheral Spanish and Italian bonds, however, climbed to multi-month highs on Wednesday as Spain began the sale of a 50-year bond and investors anticipated Italy might soon do the same.
Spain's benchmark 30-year bond yields rose to a two-month high of 2.95 percent
ES30YT=TWEB
and Italy's rose as high as 2.78 percent
IT30YT=TWEB
. Spain received orders of over 10 billion euros for its bond.
In commodities, oil prices see-sawed after Tuesday's rally of around 4 percent. Brent crude futures
LCOc1
were last up 1 percent at $46.00 per barrel and U.S. crude futures
CLc1
were up 0.3 percent at $44.80 per barrel. Both had opened the European day around 1 percent lower.
(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Larry King) ((jamie.mcgeever@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 8510)(jamie.mcgeever.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
* Earnings, banks drag European stocks lower
* Investor caution supports bonds
By Jamie McGeever
LONDON, May 11 (Reuters) - A promising start to the week by stocks fizzled out on Wednesday after a series of disappointing earnings reports. Profit-taking hit the dollar after it reached a two-week high on Tuesday.
Germany's DAX
U.S. futures pointed to a fall of around a third of one percent on Wall Street
"I'm still in the bearish camp, and any rallies on the market are for selling," said Terry Torrison, managing director at Monaco-based McLaren Securities. "Some company results have beaten expectations, but you have to remember by just how much some of these expectations had already been lowered."
Financial services were among the biggest losers in Europe. Their 2 percent fall
Shares in outdoor advertising firm JC Decaux
The FTSEuroFirst 300, German DAX and fFench CAC 40
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
Japanese shares ended flat, with the Nikkei
MSCI's broad gauge of global stocks
MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT
In currency markets, the dollar weakened, led by losses against the yen. The U.S. currency had risen to a two-week high after an economic adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Reuters on Tuesday that Japan would intervene if the yen strengthened to 90 to 95 per dollar.
But dealers locked in profits on Wednesday, pushing the dollar down 0.7 percent to 108.50 yen
"The recent rise in dollar/yen might be seen as a victory for the Bank of Japan but, perhaps unfortunately, this looks more like a marathon than a sprint," said Steve Barrow, head of G10 strategy at Standard Bank.
The euro
The dollar's index against a basket of six major currencies
Bonds remained well-supported, indicating investors were wary about riskier assets in an environment of sluggish global growth.
An auction of three-year U.S. notes on Tuesday was received well. Yields on 10-year debt
German government bonds also reflected the cautious undertone. Ten-year yields
Longer-dated yields on peripheral Spanish and Italian bonds, however, climbed to multi-month highs on Wednesday as Spain began the sale of a 50-year bond and investors anticipated Italy might soon do the same.
Spain's benchmark 30-year bond yields rose to a two-month high of 2.95 percent
In commodities, oil prices see-sawed after Tuesday's rally of around 4 percent. Brent crude futures
(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Larry King) ((jamie.mcgeever@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 8510)(jamie.mcgeever.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))