European stocks were barely changed as market participants awaited data on euroarea economic expansion after worse-than-expected reports on the German and French economies.
Asian shares rose, while U.S. futures were also little changed.
RWE AG declined 2.8 percent after saying first-half profit fell 62 percent. Novozymes A/S slid 6.1 percent after the world’s largest supplier of enzymes reported second-quarter net income that trailed analyst estimates.
ThyssenKrupp AG climbed 2.1 percent after posting quarterly earnings that beat projections.
K+S AG added 1.7 percent after reporting second-quarter earnings before interest and taxes that topped estimates.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped less than 0.1 percent to 329.88 at 8:30 a.m. in London. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slipped less than 0.1 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.3 percent, climbing for a fourth day.
11 am data in Luxembourg from the European Union’s statistics office may show that euro-area gross domestic product growth weakened to 0.1 percent in the second quarter from 0.2 percent in the previous period, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Germany’s economy contracted last quarter more than expected and France failed to grow, adding to pressure on the euro area as the Ukraine crisis and slowing inflation threaten to derail the region’s recovery.
GDP in Germany, the currency bloc’s largest economy, fell 0.2 percent from the first quarter, when it rose a revised 0.7 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. French GDP stagnated in the three months through June, national statistics office Insee said today in a statement. Economists had expected 0.1 percent growth.
In the U.S., data due at 8:30 a.m. Washington time may signal applications for jobless claims rose in the week ended Aug. 9 to 295,000 from 289,000 in the prior week, economists predicted.
