Analytics, News, and Forecasts for CFD Markets: stock news — 03-05-2012.

European stocks were little changed as company earnings were offset by comments from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi who said policy makers didn’t discuss lowering interest rates this week.

The central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1 percent today as predicted by economists. Stocks erased gains after Draghi, speaking at a press conference in Barcelona, said the central bankers did not talk about cutting rates today.

National benchmark indexes slid in 10 of the 18 western- European markets today. France’s CAC 40 lost 0.1 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 rose 0.2 percent and Germany’s DAX slid 0.2 percent.

Porsche climbing 2.9 percent to 46.99 euros after the company, jointly owned by Volkswagen AG and the Porsche SE holding company, said first-quarter profit jumped 18 percent as deliveries of the revamped 911 and Panamera surged. The preferred shares of Volkswagen added 1.8 percent to 145 euros.

Societe Generale SA, which today reported earnings that topped analyst estimates, lost 4.2 percent to 17.27 euros and Commerzbank AG slid 3.6 percent to 1.54 euros.

Smith & Nephew Plc jumped 4 percent to 629.5 pence. Europe’s biggest maker of artificial hips and knees said first-quarter sales for its wound business added 5 percent to $240 million and revenue from surgical devices rose 3 percent.

U.S. stocks retreated, sending the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lower for a second straight day, after disappointing service industries data overshadowed optimism over a bigger-than-forecast drop in jobless claims.

Equities fell as the Institute for Supply Management’s index of non-manufacturing industries, which account for almost 90 percent of the U.S. economy, decreased to 53.5 in April from 56 a month earlier. Jobless claims fell to 365,000 in the week ended April 28, a one-month low. The median forecast of economists called for 379,000 applications.

Bank of America (ВАС) declined 1.3 percent to $8.06. Hewlett- Packard (HPQ) dropped 1.2 percent to $24.94.

Green Mountain plunged 46 percent, the most ever, to $26.75. The company is seeing more competition from private- label capsules that fit into Keurig machines and from Starbucks Corp., which said it will begin selling its own single-serve brewer later this year. The company has introduced the Vue coffee machine to help combat rivals when the main patents for its K-Cups expire in September.

Target lost 1.9 percent to $56.89 as the earlier Easter holiday pulled sales into March and cooler weather cut mall traffic. Easter, which was April 8 this year after falling on April 24 in 2011, and high-school spring breaks that tend to occur around the same time pulled some shopping into March, Adrienne Tennant, a Washington-based analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, said in a report before results were announced. Cooler temperatures in the Northeast in late April also were a negative for sales of spring merchandise, she said.

Prudential Financial Inc. dropped 8 percent to $56.09. The second-biggest U.S. life insurer swung to a first-quarter loss as the value of the company’s derivative contracts fell.

Resistance 3:1420 (area of high of March)

Resistance 2:1412 (May 1 high)

Resistance 1:1404 (session high, May 2 high)

Current price: 1391,95

Support 1:1390 (Apr 30 and May 1-2 lows, 38,2 % FIBO 1354-1412)

Support 2:1382/80 (area of Apr 26 low, МА (20) and МА (55) for D1, 50.0 % FIBO 1354-1412)

Support 3:1376 (61.8 % FIBO 1354-1412)

U.S. stock futures rose as better- than-estimated jobless claims data bolstered optimism in the economy a day before the government’s employment report.

Global Stocks:

Hang Seng 21,249.53 -59.55 -0.28%

Shanghai Composite 2,440.08 +1.64 +0.07%

FTSE  5,784.92 +26.81 +0.47%

CAC  3,244.75 +18.42 +0.57%

DAX 6,738.08 +27.31 +0.41%

Crude oil $104.97 (-0.24%).

Gold $1639.10 (-0.90%).

Asian stocks fell, with a regional index heading for its first drop in eight days, as growth in China’s services industries slowed and employment reports from Europe to the U.S. and New Zealand fueled concern the global economy is faltering.

Nikkei 225 Closed

Hang Seng 21,225.33 -83.75 -0.39%

S&P/ASX 200 4,428.96 -6.95 -0.16%

Shanghai Composite 2,440.08 +1.64 +0.07%

Esprit Holdings Ltd., a clothier that counts Europe as its biggest market, slid 2.4 percent.

LG Display Co., the world’s No. 2 maker of liquid-crystal displays, sank 5.4 percent in Seoul after reports prosecutors investigating if it illegally obtained a rival’s technology searched its headquarters.

China Construction Bank Corp. and Bank of China Ltd. fell more than 3 percent in Hong Kong after Temasek Holdings Pte. sold shares in the Chinese lenders at a discount.

Asian stocks gained as manufacturing in the U.S. and China improved in April, adding to signs the world’s biggest economies are recovering and boosting the outlook for the region’s exporters.

Nikkei 225 9,380.25 +29.30 +0.31%

Hang Seng 21,353.64 +259.43 +1.23%

S&P/ASX 200 4,435.9 +6.39 +0.14%

Shanghai Composite 2,438.44 +42.12 +1.76%

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s No. 1 mobile-phone maker by sales, climbed 1.4 percent in Seoul.

Japan Tobacco Inc. gained 2.4 percent after Asia’s largest cigarette maker said it will raise its dividend payout.

Idemitsu Kosan Co. jumped 4.6 percent after Japan’s third-biggest oil refiner posted earnings that beat expectations.

Asustek Computer Inc. surged 7 percent in Taipei after the laptop maker reported net income that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Change % Change Last

Nikkei 225 9,380.25 +29.30 +0.31%

Hang Seng 21,353.64 +259.43 +1.23%

S&P/ASX 200 4,435.9 +6.39 +0.14%

Shanghai Composite 2,438.44 +42.12 +1.76%