By Sitaraman Shankar
LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - European shares ended lower on
Monday, breaking a three-day winning streak, as weaker techs and
telecoms offset the impact of surprisingly robust U.S. service
sector figures.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European stocks ended down 0.25 percent at 1,357.99 points. With
UK markets closed for a public holiday, volumes were thin.
Tech stocks weighed after Microsoft <MSFT.O> walked away
from a bid for Yahoo <YHOO.O>. Chip equipment maker ASML
<ASML.AS> lost 2.3 percent, and in the telecom sector,
Alcatel-Lucent <ALUA.PA>, Ericsson <ERICb.ST> and Nokia
<NOK1V.HE> fell 1.1-1.9 percent.
Stocks got a brief fillip from data that showed the U.S.
service sector grew in April for the first time in four months,
adding to signs that the United States might skirt a recession.
But oil hitting a record above $120 a barrel weighed on the
broader market.
Investor focus moves to a heavy earnings day on Tuesday,
when Swiss bank UBS <UBSN.VX>, among the lenders worst hit by a
global credit crisis, is expected to report a big first-quarter
loss.
"The earnings season has been mixed with some pronounced
positives and some negatives. All in all one might say the
earnings development has not been as bad as one feared, given
the macro backdrop," said Tammo Greetfeld, strategist at
UniCredit in Munich, Germany.
"But the combination of the outlook statements and the
expected macro data should not be good enough to give equity
markets a lasting positive stimulus from current levels," he
added.
The FTSEurofirst has lost nearly 10 percent this year as
banks unveiled massive writedowns linked to the credit crisis,
but the index staged a rally in April, recording its best month
since October 2003 on hopes that the worst was over for
financials.
Across Europe, Germany's DAX <> ended up 0.1 percent
and France's CAC <> down 0.1 percent.
"We had a pretty solid rally on Friday on the back of the
jobs data, and with London off today, volumes are very low as
nobody is willing to build any position," said Chicuong Dang,
equity analyst at Richelieu Finance, in Paris.
SUPERJUMBO SHADOW STALKS EADS
Defence and aerospace group EADS <EAD.PA> was among the
biggest laggards, falling nearly 4 percent after German media
reported that Airbus could run into problems selling some of its
factory sites and could be forced to further delay some
deliveries on its A380 superjumbo.
The reports said EADS would have a board meeting on Tuesday
to decide whether or not to proceed with the sale of factory
sites. A source close to the matter said that no such board
meeting was planned.
Deutsche Telekom <DTEGn.DE> fell 1.5 percent after Der
Spiegel magazine and other media reported the company was
looking at a possible purchase of U.S. wireless company Sprint
Nextel <S.N>. Sprint Nextel jumped 5 percent in New York.
German logistics group Deutsche Post <DPWGn.DE> topped
German gainers with a 2.9-percent rise following an upbeat
first-quarter update.
(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson in Paris; Editing by
David Cowell)
