Reuters – European shares closed lower on Tuesday in response to disappointing U.S. economic data, with banking and commodity stocks weighing the most on the main index.

”We have had a couple of macro figures which did not please the market. The U.S. labour costs and productivity figures are worrying … they simply mean that there are enormous constraints on the consumer who are supposed to bail us all out of this,” said Heino Ruland, strategist at Ruland Research.

”Industry is just slashing costs all over the place … it means final demand may not be strong enough,” he said.

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Tags: commodity stocks, constraints, economic data, european shares, labour costs, productivity figures, reuters, strategist

Reuters – World stocks pushed up to 9-month highs on Friday, cutting demand for government bonds as euro zone manufacturing and services reports beat expectations, fuelling optimism about economic recovery.

The euro hit a session high against the dollar and European shares reversed earlier losses to climb for a 10th session running after a better-than-expected German sentiment survey and improved data on the euro zone services and manufacturing sectors.

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Tags: economic recovery, euro zone, european shares, government bonds, losses, manufacturing sectors, optimism, reuters, sentiment, world stocks

Business Spectator – European shares jumped for a fifth straight session on Monday, led higher by financials, as investor sentiment improved following further assurances over the health of the US banking sector.

At 0948 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was up 2.3 per cent at 718.41 points, extending the previous session’s gain of 0.8 per cent. But it is still down 14 per cent this year after plunging 45 per cent in 2008.

The broader STOXX 600 was up 2.1 per cent at 172.15 points, with banks and insurers topping the gainers list.

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Tags: assurances, banking-sector, banks, european shares, gainers, health, investor-sentiment, spectator