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Auto stocks drive Europe lower
LONDON, England (CNN) -- European markets continued to slide in early afternoon trading on Thursday as auto stocks came under pressure from a monthly survey showing a sharp drop in new car registrations in the region. London's FTSE 100 was down 1.4 percent to 3,918.4, the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris fell 1.8 percent to 3,133.64 and Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax lost 2.6 percent to 3,113.89. The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, was down 1.9 percent. Auto stocks took a hit after the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers Association said registrations in Western Europe fell 6.2 percent in November from a year earlier, following two months of strong gains. (Full story) Struggling Italian carmaker Fiat took the brunt of the decline as its European sales slumped 21.7 percent in November and its market share dropped to 7.7 percent from 9.3 percent a year ago. Its shares were down 4.7 percent to 8.59 euros in early trading on Thursday. German luxury carmaker BMW (FMW) fell 5.6 percent to 31.09 euros, while DaimlerChrysler (FDCX) lost 4 percent to 32.05 euros and France's Peugeot (PEUP) declined 3.2 percent to 41.81 euros. The aerospace sector was led lower by BAE Systems (BA), which plunged 25 percent to 98.32 pence after it warned of cost overruns and delays on UK defence contracts. "Most of the news this week has been OK and people seem to believe the economic picture is improving, but the BAE [news] shows it's still got a lot to get through," a London trader told Reuters. EADS (PEAD), which owns 80 percent of jet maker Airbus, fell 2.8 percent to 10.93 euros -- but off its lows for the session -- after another major company that it has a stake in -- Arianespace -- saw its Ariane-5 rocket explode shortly after blast-off from French Guinana. (Full story) The AEX index in Amsterdam was down 1.8 percent, Milan's MIB30 index lost 1.7 percent and the SMI in Zurich fell 1 percent. In the U.S. on Wednesday, stocks struggled for direction, closing the session with negligible gains as investors digested ho-hum comments from Intel's chairman and other mixed corporate news. (Full report) The Nasdaq composite rose 5.83 points to 1396.59, while the Dow Jones industrial average gained 14.88 points to 8589.14 and the Standard & Poor's 500 index added 0.51 points to 904.96. Wall Street was expected to open lower later on Thursday. S&P 500 index futures were down 4.2 points to 898 on the Globex trading system, while fair value, a measure that takes account of interest costs and dividend payments, was calculated at 905.18.
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