European stocks were little changed

European stocks were little changed near a five-year high as investors awaited U.S. employment data to gauge the timing of a cut in Federal Reserve bond purchases. U.S. index futures and Asian shares were also little changed.

In the U.S., a report at 8:30 a.m. Washington time may show that payrolls rose by 180,000 last month, the most since April, after a 169,000 gain in August, according to the median forecast of 93 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. The Labor Department release, delayed by the 16-day shutdown that ended last week, was originally slated to be released on Oct. 4.

The unemployment rate held at 7.3 percent in September, according to the median projection in another survey.

The Federal Open Market Committee will hold a two-day meeting beginning on Oct. 29. The Fed will delay the first reduction in its monthly bond purchases until March because the closure of federal agencies slowed fourth-quarter growth and interrupted the gathering of data, economists said in a Bloomberg News survey.

Tele2 slumped 9.9 percent to 77.45 kronor, leading a gauge of European telecommunications shares to its first loss in nine days. The company posted a third-quarter net loss of 171 million kronor ($26.7 million), missing the 518 million-kronor profit analysts had estimated. Tele2 also reduced its forecasts for 2015 sales to not more than 33.5 billion kronor and for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization that year to a maximum of 7.3 billion kronor.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG declined 2.5 percent to 14.48 euros after saying it expects an operating result of 600 million euros to 700 million euros in 2014. That compared with 524 million euros last year.

FTSE 100 6,665.53 +11.33 +0.17%

CAC 40 4,275.92 -1.00 -0.02%

DAX 8,861.82 -5.40 -0.06%