Stocks: Monday’s review

Asian stocks turned in a mixed performance on Monday as investors awaited earnings for direction amid public holidays in several key financial markets. Many markets across the Asia-Pacific region, including those in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays. The Japanese market was shut for the National Foundation Day. South Korea, Japan and the Philippines will resume trading on Tuesday, while Singapore and Malaysia will return to action on Wednesday. Hong Kong will resume trading on Thursday, while China and Taiwan are off until next Monday.

Nikkei 225 Closed

Hang Seng Closed

S&P/ASX 200 4,959.5 -11.79 -0.24%

Shanghai Composite Closed

Global miner BHP Billiton slipped 0.6 percent and rival Rio Tinto edged down 0.2 percent as base metal prices eased.

Among the major banks, Westpac shed 0.4 percent and ANZ declined 1.2 percent, while NAB rose 0.2 percent and Commonwealth added half a percent.

Insurance Australia Group slipped 0.4 percent after the company said it has received more than 13,700 claims relating to the impact of ex-tropical cyclone Oswald to date.

European stocks fell, extending a two-week decline, as Novo Nordisk A/S sank the most in almost four years after failing to win U.S. approval for a new drug.

Novo Nordisk, the world’s largest insulin maker, tumbled 13 percent. Lundin Petroleum AB lost 10 percent after the company said resources at its Johan Sverdrup oil discovery in the North Sea may be toward the low end of forecasts. Royal Ahold NV rallied 3.9 percent after agreeing to sell its 60 percent stake in ICA, Sweden’s largest food retailer, for $3.1 billion.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.6 percent to 285.51 at 4:32 p.m. in London.

National benchmark indexes fell in 11 of the 18 western European markets.

FTSE 100 6,277.06 +13.13 +0.21% CAC 40 3,650.58 +1.08 +0.03% DAX 7,633.74 -18.40 -0.24%

Novo Nordisk, which accounts for 0.9 percent of the Stoxx 600 by weighting, lost 139.50 kroner to 930.50 kroner, the biggest drop since April 2009. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said its Tresiba diabetes medication can’t be approved without additional data on heart safety and the Danish drugmaker won’t be able to provide the information this year, according to a statement from Novo Nordisk.

Lundin Petroleum fell 16.60 kronor to 148.30 kronor in Stockholm after saying resources in its part of the Johan Sverdrup discovery will probably be within the lower half of the forecast for 800 million to 1.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Fugro NV dropped 7.2 percent to 39.07 euros in Amsterdam after supervisory board Vice Chairman Frans Cremers quit the biggest deepwater-oilfield surveyor. The company said in a statement that changes in financial organisation of Fugro “were not adequately carried through.”

Wacker Chemie AG increased 9.4 percent to 60.78 euros after the polysilicon maker ramped up production at a plant in Burghausen, Germany, citing growing demand from its solar-power customers. The company had put about 700 employees at the plan on shorter hours in October.

Bilfinger SE gained 2.5 percent to 75.80 euros after Germany’s second-largest construction company forecast an increase in profit in 2013, driven by savings and demands for engineering work and services in the power industry. The company reported a 2 percent gain in sales last year to 8.64 billion euros.

U.S. stocks rose slightly, but still finished trading below zero

Indexes with the absence of any publication of macroeconomic data and corporate communications, which could set the direction of trading, moderately adjusted from the reached multi-year highs on Friday.

The focus of the market participants are meeting the eurozone finance ministers, who should discuss the aid program for Cyprus and Greece.

In the week about 50 companies whose shares are included in the index S & P 500, will publish its quarterly reports. To date, the financial statements submitted more than 330 companies whose shares are included in the index S & P 500 and it is worth noting that the financial results of most of them were better than expected.

Among the companies that will report this week will attract the attention of the market in the first quarter reports from Coca-Cola (KO), General Motors (GM) and PepsiCo (PEP).

Most of the components of the index DOW rising in price (16 of 30). Leader shares in Microsoft Corporation (MSFT, +1.27%). More than others in the share price fell Unitedhealth Group, Inc. (UNH, -1.02%).

Among the sectors of the S & P in the black is only the financial sector (+0.1%). Sector fell more than other basic materials (-0.5%).

At the close:

Dow -22.58 13,970.39 -0.16%

Nasdaq -1.86 3,192.01 -0.06%