6:30AM European markets were lower Wednesday on profit-booking.
European stocks were lower by mid morning on Wednesday. The FTSE 100 in London shed 0.2% to 6,062.4, while Frankfurt Xetra Dax slipped 0.4% to 6,094.27, and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.6% to 5,279.91.

Advancers

Mediolanum advanced 2.5% as broker Cheuvreux upgraded the Italian bank from underperform from outperform. French insurer CNP Assurances surged 5.1% following its statement that it would raise 700 million euros in debt and the same amount in stock to fund its acquisition of a stake in rival Ecureuil Vie.

Deutsche Telekom gained 1.5% on speculation that Blackstone, the private equity group, and BT, the UK fixed-line operator, were readying for a joint bid. Telecom Italia gained 2.5% after it was reported in the Italian press that Franco-Polish financier Roman Zaleski had bought a stake in the company.

Decliners

Banks were on the decline in early trading. Crédit Agricole, the French bank, fell 2.9% after downgrades from both UBS and ABN Amro. ABN Amro downgraded Agricole from buy to hold.

Banca Intesa lost 0.5%, while Sanpaolo IMI shed 0.1% as investors awaited the outcome of a board meeting at Agricole, which owns an 18% stake in Intesa. Agricole board will discuss the likely merger of Intesa and Sanpaolo.

Other news

The bid of Ryanair for Aer Lingus,met with further resistance as pilots in the former state-owned carrier bought a 2% stake that could help to block the takeover offer.

Oil and gold

Oil prices fell further Wednesday. Light, sweet crude for November delivery dropped 11 cents to $58.41 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. November Brent crude also slipped 11 cents to $59.23 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Gold rose above $575 an ounce on Wednesday. Spot gold hit an intraday high of $575,20 before slipping to $571,30/572,30 an ounce by 04:00 GMT, down from $573,70/574,70 late in New York on Tuesday.

Currencies

The euro gained slightly against the U.S. currency on Wednesday, and the dollar also lost ground against the Japanese yen after hitting a 10-month high. The euro bought $1.2544 in morning European trading, up from $1.2535 in New York late Tuesday. The British pound strengthened to $1.8552 from $1.8539. The U.S. dollar briefly reached a 10-month high against the Japanese currency on unsubstantiated rumors about a second North Korean nuclear test. It surged to 119.78 yen, but declined to 119.45 yen in Europe, down from 119.76 late Tuesday.

5:00AM Gold retreats under the pressure of weaker oil and stronger dollar.
Gold for December delivery finished down $6.60 at $576.20 an ounce on the NYME, after having plunged to an intraday low of $573. December silver futures lost 20 cents to end at $11.22 an ounce, while January platinum dipped $19.20 to close at $1,075.70 an ounce and December palladium slipped $1.65 to close at $301.60 an ounce. December copper declined 3.5 cents to close at $3.378 a pound.

Crude oil for November delivery declined $1.44 to end at $58.52 a barrel on the NYME. November gasoline futures ended down 2.81 cents at $1.4668 a gallon and November heating oil shed 4.88 cents to end at $1.6809 a gallon. Natural gas futures for November delivery settled 3.7 cents higher at $6.466 a million British thermal units.

Arabica coffee futures closed slightly lower, after industry buying put an end to an early slide. December coffee finished 0.20 cent lower at $1.0285 a pound. March raw sugar futures settled 0.13 cents higher at 11.61 cents a pound, after trading as high at 11.87 cents a pound.