European Stocks Steady Despite China Concerns -- European Commentary

(RTTNews) - European stocks fought back from early losses on Thursday, improving along with Wall Street after a slew of economic data from the U.S.

The mood at the start of the session was fairly grim as traders considered data showing Chinese manufacturing shrank for a second month. Spirits improved figures showed a surprising drop in U.S. jobless claims.

Markets around Europe finished the session narrowly mixed, with U.K. and French stocks posting modest gains while German shares lagged behind.

The EURO STOXX 50 Index eased 4 points, or 0.1 percent, to 3,116.80.

Looking to individual countries, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 16.28 points to 6,812.99. Germany's DAX lost 41.20 points to 9,618. France's CAC 40 index was the best performer of the region's major averages for a second day, advancing 14.39, or 0.3 percent, to close at 4,355.49.

Accor SA declined 0.6 in Paris after the French hotel group reported Thursday a decline in fiscal 2013 revenues

Dutch insurer Aegon also reported higher fourth quarter underlying earnings, but shares were down 6.5 percent in Amsterdam.

German engineering company Schneider Electric saw its 2013 top line shaved by currency fluctuations in the emerging market, although its profits rose modestly. The stock was up 3 percent in Frankfurt.

Danone's full year earnings were hurt by weak baby food sales. German chemical company Henkel reported a decline in its fourth quarter profits and sales, also hurt by currency swings. Shares rose 1.5 percent in Paris.

Air France-KLM reported a wider loss for its full year, and signed an exclusive long term strategic partnership with Brazilian low-cost low-fare airline Gol for commercial cooperation between Brazil and Europe. Shares were down 0.5 percent.

Swiss Re reported improved profit for the full year, proposed a special dividend, and named insider David Cole as Chief Financial Officer, effective May 1. The stock edged up 0.5 percent.

On the economic front, the German Federal Statistical Office reported that German producer prices fell 1.1 percent year-over-year in January, steeper than the 0.5 drop in December and the 0.8 percent decline expected by economists.

Eurozone's private sector economy expanded for the eighth successive month in February, but the pace of improvement slowed unexpectedly as recovery remains fragile and uneven, a closely-watched survey revealed Thursday.

The flash composite output index, which measures the performance of manufacturing and services, fell to 52.7 in February from January's 31-month high of 52.9, results of the Purchasing Managers' survey by Markit Economics showed.

From the U.S., the Conference Board's Leading Economic Index for the U.S. increased 0.3 percent in January to 99.5, suggesting the world's largest economy did not lose much momentum despite severe winter weather.

And layoff activity moderated a bit last week, according to new government statistics released Thursday.

The U.S. Labor Department revealed that initial jobless claims fell 3,000 to 336,000 for the week ended February 15. This followed an unrevised reading of 339,000 in the previous week.