European stocks were little changed

European stocks were little changed near a 23-month high as investors awaited reports on American durable-goods orders and pending house sales.

Orders for durable goods probably climbed in December, showing U.S. manufacturing stabilized following a mid-year slump, according to economists before a report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. Separately, the National Association of Realtors may say its index of pending sales of houses rose 0.1 percent last month after increasing 1.7 percent the prior month.

Chinese industrial companies’ profits rose 17 percent to 895 billion yuan ($144 billion) in December from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday in Beijing.

SBM Offshore gained 3.5 percent to 12.01 euros, a four- month high. The largest maker of floating oil-and-gas platforms was raised to equal weight, a rating similar to neutral, from underweight at Morgan Stanley.

Debenhams Plc, the second-largest U.K. department-store chain, dropped 3.7 percent to 101.4 pence. Morgan Stanley cut its recommendation on the shares to equal weight from overweight. The brokerage lowered its rating on the U.K. general retail industry to “cautious” and said analysts’ estimates for the industry’s profit growth in 2013 are too high.