Europe Stocks Little Changed After Stoxx 600 Hit ’08 High

European stocks were little changed, after climbing to a six-year high, as investors awaited U.S. data on durable-goods orders and consumer confidence. U.S. index futures rose, while Asian shares were little changed.

Aveva Group Plc jumped 11 percent after reporting profit that beat analysts' estimates. InterContinental Hotels Group Plc added 5.6 percent after a report that it rejected a takeover bid. Accor SA climbed 1.3 percent after agreeing to buy hotels in Europe. AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) slipped 2.3 percent after Pfizer Inc. abandoned its effort to buy the drugmaker.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.1 percent to 344.02 at 9:23 a.m. in London. The benchmark gauge has risen 8.3 percent from this year's low on Feb. 4 amid increased mergers-and-acquisitions activity and as ECB President Mario Draghi said policy makers are ready to ease monetary policy if necessary. Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures climbed 0.4 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.1 percent.

"Markets are looking for the next news," Raimund Saxinger, a fund manager at Frankfurt-Trust Investment GmbH, which oversees about $22 billion. "We had some weak U.S. data due to the harsh winter and now everyone is expecting a recovery in spring and summer and a bounce back. People want to see confirmation of that in the data."

A U.S. report at 8:30 a.m. Washington time may show that U.S. durable-goods orders fell 0.7 percent in April, according to the median economist estimate in a Bloomberg News survey. They rose 2.5 percent in March. A separate report will probably show that a gauge of consumer confidence increased to 83 this month from 82.3. A Markit Economics preliminary index for services slipped to 54.5 this month from 55, forecasts show.

European Elections

The Stoxx 600 climbed 0.6 percent yesterday to 343.69, its highest level since January 2008, as Italian banks surged after Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's party beat a populist challenger in European Parliament elections. Leaders of the region will meet today to discuss the way forward after a surge of protest parties across the 28-nation bloc, seeking to push the case for an easing of fiscal policy in the euro area.

Aveva climbed 11 percent to 2,392 pence. The U.K. maker of computer software posted annual adjusted pretax profit of 78.3 million pounds ($132 million), beating the average analyst estimate of 75.9 million pounds.

Travel, Leisure

A gauge of travel and leisure shares in the Stoxx 600 gained the most among 19 industry groups. InterContinental Hotels Group Plc rose 5.6 percent to 2,351 pence. Sky News reported that the world's largest provider of hotel accommodation spurned an offer that valued it at about 6 billion pounds.

Accor gained 1.3 percent to 38.02 euros after agreeing to buy hotels in Germany and the Netherlands for about 900 million euros ($1.23 billion). Europe's largest hotel operator said the purchase will contribute to earnings before interest and tax this year and is in exclusive talks to buy another 11 hotels in Switzerland.

Lloyds Banking Group Plc rose 0.9 percent to 76.6 pence after saying it will sell a 25 percent stake in its TSB consumer bank in an initial public offering next month. Britain's biggest mortgage lender said the prospectus for the IPO will be published in the middle of June. The European Commission ruled in 2009 that Lloyds should have to sell part of its business in response to its U.K. government bailout.

AstraZeneca fell 2.3 percent to 4,228.5 pence. Pfizer, the largest U.S. drugmaker, ended its six-month effort to buy the U.K. company after offering 69.4 billion pounds ($117 billion), saying the rejected public bid represented "full value."

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Morgan in Frankfurt at jmorgan157@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net