German Stocks Drift Lower After Rally

(RTTNews) - German stocks drifted lower on Wednesday as oil prices resumed declines after a four-day rally and optimism over the U.S. economy faded ahead of the monthly jobs report due later this week.

Greece's new Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, said in an interview published today that Greece has started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over a plan to lessen the burden of the country's hefty debt burden.

The euro held steady against the dollar after a survey showed the euro zone private sector grew at its fastest pace in six months in January. Russia's ruble remains under selling pressure as HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index showed the country's services sector contracted at the fastest rate since 2009 in January.

The benchmark German DAX is currently down 45 points or 0.42 percent at 10.845.27 after rising to a record high yesterday. Elsewhere, France's CAC 40 is moving down 0.3 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 is declining half a percent.

Energy giant RWE is losing 2 percent and E.ON is moving down 1.2 percent, a day after an adviser to the EU Court of Justice rejected arguments that the German nuclear fuel tax violated EU state aid rules.

Deutsche Bank is marginally lower after Standard & Poor's put its long and short-term ratings on watch for a potential downgrade.

Siemens is declining half a percent after Moody's Investors Service downgraded its senior debt ratings.

Business software giant SAP is rising 0.2 percent after unveiling a new generation of enterprise software.

Kabel Deutschland Holding shares are gaining 0.3 percent. The cable network operator reported third-quarter net profit of 73 million euros, compared to 33 million euros last year.

Sky Deutschland is adding 0.6 percent. The pay-TV broadcaster narrowed its second-quarter net loss to 37.1 million euros from 80.4 million euros in the year-ago period.

Osram Licht, a leader in the global lighting market, is rallying 2.5 percent after posting better-than-expected earnings for the December quarter.

Shares of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen are plunging 7.3 percent. The printing machines maker reported a pretax loss of 60 million euros for the third quarter, compared to a profit of 3.9 million euros in the year-ago period.

Elsewhere, the Asian markets followed Wall Street higher as gains in oil and copper prices as well as hopes for a new Greek debt swap deal eased concerns over global growth. Chinese shares bucked the upward trend to end sharply lower in a late-day selloff, as weak services sector data dampened investor sentiment.

U.S. stock index futures are edging lower as investors await private sector employment and service sector activity data as well as speeches from Fed officials Jerome Powell and Loretta Mester for clues on the timing of an interest rate increase.