European stocks were little changed as better-than-estimated U.S. retail sales data offset investor speculation that this year's rally has overshot the outlook for company earnings.

Stocks pared losses as a Commerce Department report showed U.S. retail sales climbed 0.6 percent in May, exceeding the 0.4 percent forecast by economists in a survey.

The World Bank said in a report that the global economy will expand 2.2 percent this year, less than a January forecast for 2.4 percent growth and slower than last year's 2.3 percent. It lowered its projection for developing economies and said the euro area's gross domestic product will fall 0.6 percent.

National benchmark indexes fell in 11 of the 18 western-European markets. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.1 percent, France's CAC 40 rose 0.1 percent, while Germany's DAX lost 0.6 percent.

RBS fell 3.3 percent to 315 pence after Hester said he is resigning later this year at the board's request as the state-controlled British bank prepares for privatization.

Home Retail tumbled 9 percent to 131.1 pence after saying it expects consumer spending to remain subdued this year. Same-store sales at Argos stores rose 1.9 percent in the 13 weeks ended June 1, missing the 3 percent-gain estimated by analysts in a survey.

Rhoen-Klinikum gained 6.7 percent to 17.73 euros as shareholders abolished a clause requiring a majority of 90 percent of capital represented at its annual meetings to approve decisions. Last year's takeover bid from Fresenius SE failed to clear the threshold after rival Asklepios Kliniken GmbH bought a stake.

Business inventories in the U.S. rose in line with economist estimates in the month of April, according to a report released by the Commerce Department on Thursday.

The report said business inventories increased by 0.3 percent in April compared to a revised 0.1 percent decrease in March. The modest rebound matched the expectations of economists.

Retail inventories rose by 0.4 percent, while inventories at both manufacturers and merchant wholesalers edged up by 0.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department also said business sales dipped by 0.1 percent in April after tumbling by 1.2 percent in the previous month.

The drop in business sales reflected a 0.7 percent decrease in sales by manufacturers. The report said sales by retailers were unchanged, while sales by merchant wholesalers rose by 0.5 percent.

With inventories rising and sales falling, the total business inventories/sales ratio inched up to 1.31 in April from 1.30 in March. The ratio came in at 1.27 in April of 2012.

The report also showed that business inventories increased at an annual rate of 4.2 percent in April, while business sales were up by 1.5 percent year-over-year.

West Texas Intermediate crude fluctuated as fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits and the World Bank cut its global growth forecast.

Futures moved in an 92-cent range as U.S. jobless claims declined by 12,000 to 334,000 last week and retail sales increased more than forecast in May, according to government reports. Prices fell as much as 0.9 percent earlier after the World Bank cut its economic outlook, spurring concern that fuel demand will wane.

WTI for July delivery dropped 9 cents to $95.79 a barrel at 10:28 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The volume of all futures traded was 9.4 percent below the 100-day average.

Brent for July settlement, which expires today, climbed 31 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $103.80 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The more actively traded August futures increased 34 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $103.90. Volume was 24 percent below the 100-day average for the time of day.

Brent’s premium to WTI strengthened to as wide as $8.15 a barrel from yesterday’s settlement of $7.61.

Gold prices traded within yesterday's range against the downturn in the stock markets in Asia and the fall of the dollar to a 10-week low against the yen.

Markets will be watching the Fed's meeting on June 18-19, hoping to get hints on plans to reduce the program of buying bonds. Most economists assume that the reduction will occur at the end of the year, and some believe that it could happen in September.

Gold became cheaper in trading in Asia this week due to lack of demand in China, the consumption of gold occupies the second place in the world after India. Demand in India is also reduced, as the government in an attempt to reduce the trade deficit increased by one-third the import duty on gold. As a result of this measure, the import of precious metals in the second half of May fell to $ 36 million from $ 135 million in the first half of the month, said Thursday the Finance Minister of India.

The cost of the August gold futures on COMEX today kept within the range of 1376.0 - 1394.4 per ounce.

EUR/USD $1.3200, $1.3250

USD/JPY Y95.80, Y96.00,Y95.00

GBP/USD $1.5615, $1.5640, $1.5975

EUR/CHF Chf1.2475

AUD/USD $0.9500, $0.9700

NSD/USD $0.7940

USD/SEK Sek6.6015

U.S. stock futures erased losses as a bigger-than-forecast rise in retail sales offset a cut in the World Bank's global growth forecast.

Global Stocks:

Nikkei 12,445.38 -843.94 -6.35%

Hang Seng 20,887.04 -467.62 -2.19%

Shanghai Composite 2,148.36 -62.54 -2.83%

FTSE 6,252.12 -47.33 -0.75%

CAC 3,769.46 -24.24 -0.64%

DAX 8,029.58 -113.69 -1.40%

Crude oil $95.59 -0.30%

Gold $1379.00 - 0.93%

Upgrades:

Downgrades:

Other:

Walt Disney (DIS) initiated with a Neutral at Sterne Agee

Boeing (BA) initiated with a Overweight at Morgan Stanley

American Express (AXP) initiated with Perform at Oppenheimer

Data

01:00 Australia Consumer Inflation Expectation June +2.3% +2.3%

01:30 Australia Unemployment rate May 5.5% 5.6% 5.5%

01:30 Australia Changing the number of employed May 50.1 -9.8 1.1

07:15 Switzerland Producer & Import Prices, m/m May +0.2% +0.1% -0.3%

07:15 Switzerland Producer & Import Prices, y/y May -0.1% +0.1% -0.2%

08:00 Eurozone ECB Monthly Report June

12:15 United Kingdom MPC Member Tucker Speaks

The dollar rose against the euro as market participants' attention is now focused on the publication of the U.S. data. Experts predict that U.S. retail sales are likely to increase in May, the most in three months, as Americans took advantage of cheap loans to buy new cars, economists say. Is expected to increase by 0.4% after increasing 0.1% in April, according to the median forecast of economists. Borrowing costs are reduced because of the uncertainty in the future of monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve, increasing car sales in the face of rising taxes and limiting the growth of income. Increase in stock prices and housing prices are the basis of household purchases, which account for about 70 percent of the economy. We add that the Commerce Department will publish a report on retail sales for 12:30 GMT. Estimates of economists range from a decline of 0.1 percent to 0.8 percent growth. Employment growth, which leads to an increase in wage growth, will help spur consumer purchases. Recall that employers added 175,000 jobs last month. The average monthly increase in the last year was 176,250.

The Australian dollar rose against the U.S. dollar, after data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that by the end of last month, the number of employed in Australia unexpectedly increased, led by growth in the number of which was a part-time employment. It should be noted that the report also showed a slight drop in the unemployment rate. According to a report in May, the number of employees increased by 1,100, reaching at this level 11.66 million be added that according to the average forecasts of experts, the value of this index was reduced by 9,800 people. It should be noted that this increase followed a gain on the April 45000, which was revised downwards to 50,100 people. In a related report, which was annexed to the present data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that the overall data for May were better than expected, but in spite of this, the Australian labor market is still dominated by weakness. We add that the published data also showed that from April to May, total employment fell by 5,300 people (up to 8,153 million), which was partially offset by an increase in employment of part-time work for 6,400 people (up to 3.509 million). In addition, it was reported that the unemployment rate fell last month to 5.5 percent, compared with a revised upward index for April at 5.6 percent. Recall that originally reported the April unemployment at 5.5 percent. We add that the number of unemployed decreased in the month of May 3600, or at 0.5 percent for the month, while reaching a level of 682,900 people.

The yen rose to a peak in the last two months against the dollar and crossed the mark of Y95.00 after official data showed that Japanese investors sold foreign shares and bonds of the 4th week in a row. It is worth noting that today, Haruhiko Kuroda, governor of the Bank of Japan, said the central bank will continue its policy easing, assuring Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the recent volatility in the markets will gradually decrease. Bank of Japan's "determined to continue the qualitative and quantitative easing to support the Japanese economy," - said Kuroda told reporters after a meeting with Abe. According to the Nikkei, Kuroda also told the prime minister that the financial markets "settle down in response to the positive developments in the economy." Prime Minister Abe and the governor of the Bank of Japan met before the meeting of the leaders of the G, scheduled for next week, where Abe is expected to explain its economic policies

EUR / USD: during the European session, the pair fell to $ 1.3310

GBP / USD: during the European session, the pair rose c $ 1.5640 to $ 1.5685

USD / JPY: during the European session, the pair fell to Y93.78, but then rose to Y94.46

At 12:30 GMT in Canada will price index for housing in the primary market for April and the capacity utilization rate in Q1. Also this time, the U.S. will become aware of the change in the volume of retail trade, changes in the volume of retail sales excluding auto sales and changes in the volume of retail trade sales, excluding cars and fuel in May, and will import price index for May. At 14:00 GMT the United States will announce the change in our Business Inventories for April. At 22:30 GMT New Zealand will index of business activity in the manufacturing sector of Business NZ in May. At 23:50 GMT Japan will be published in the minutes of the meeting of the Bank of Japan on monetary policy in May.

EUR/USD

Offers $1.3430/35, $1.3400, $1.3390

Bids $1.3320, $1.3300, $1.3290-70, $1.3250, $1.3220, $1.3200-185

GBP/USD

Offers $1.5750/60, $1.5730, $1.5710, $1.5703

Bids $1.5645/40, $1.5630, $1.5605/00, $1.5585/80, $1.5530/20

AUD/USD

Offers $0.9650, $0.9600, $0.9575/85, $0.9550

Bids $0.9460/50, $0.9420, $0.9410/00, $0.9380, $0.9355/50

EUR/JPY

Offers Y127.80, Y127.35/40, Y127.00, Y126.80, Y126.45/50

Bids Y125.20, Y125.00, Y124.50, Y124.44

USD/JPY

Offers Y95.95/00, Y94.90/00, Y94.45/50, Y94.43

Bids Y93.75, Y93.55/50, Y93.20, Y93.00

EUR/GBP

Offers stg0.8595/600, stg0.8575/80, stg0.8560/65, stg0.8551

Bids stg0.8465/60, stg0.8445/40, stg0.8420, stg0.8400

European stocks fell to a seven-week low, following a selloff in Asian equities, as investors speculated this year's rally has overshot the earnings outlook amid concern that central banks may pare stimulus measures. U.S. futures and Asian shares also declined.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 1.4 percent to 286.57 at 10:13 a.m. in London, heading for its worst weekly decline in a year. The gauge has lost 7.7 percent since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said May 22 that the central bank may pare its quantitative easing if the U.S. economy improves sustainably.

The World Bank said in a report that the global economy will expand 2.2 percent this year, less than a January forecast for 2.4 percent growth and slower than last year's 2.3 percent. It lowered its projection for developing economies and said the euro area's gross domestic product will fall 0.6 percent.

U.S. retail sales probably increased 0.4 percent in May, following a 0.1 percent gain a month earlier, economists said before a report at 8:30 a.m. in Washington.

Home Retail tumbled 10 percent to 129.4 pence, the most since May 2012, after saying it expects consumer spending to remain subdued this year. Same-store sales at Argos stores rose 1.9 percent in the 13 weeks ended June 1, missing the 3 percent-gain estimated by analysts.

France Telecom SA declined 1.2 percent to 7.38 euros after French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said its board should meet "as soon as possible" to discuss the consequences of CEO Stephane Richard being charged in a probe dating to when he was chief of staff for then-Finance Minister Christine Lagarde.

Rhoen-Klinikum gained 12 percent to 18.60 euros, its biggest advance since April 2012, as shareholders abolished a clause requiring a majority of 90 percent of capital represented at its annual meetings to approve decisions. Last year's takeover bid from Fresenius SE failed to clear the threshold after rival Asklepios Kliniken GmbH bought a stake.

FTSE 100 6,224.44 -75.01 -1.19%

CAC 40 3,763.39 -30.31 -0.80%

DAX 8,007.39 -135.88 -1.67%

EUR/USD $1.3200, $1.3250

USD/JPY Y95.80, Y96.00,Y95.00

GBP/USD $1.5615, $1.5640, $1.5975

EUR/CHF Chf1.2475

AUD/USD $0.9500, $0.9700

NSD/USD $0.7940

USD/SEK Sek6.6015

Emerging-market stocks slid to a 10-month low, led by Chinese and Thai companies, after the World Bank cut its global growth forecast and investors weighed prospects for monetary stimulus. China's stocks fell after a three-day holiday, dragging the benchmark index to a six-month low, as government reports showed industrial production and exports trailed economists' estimates.

Nikkei 225 12,445.38 -843.94 -6.35%

Hang Seng 20,811.94 -542.72 -2.54%

S&P/ASX 200 4,695.8 -28.65 -0.61%

Shanghai Composite 2,148.36 -62.54 -2.83%

PetroChina Co. and China Construction Bank Corp. paced declines on the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which was poised to enter a bear market Advanced Info Service Pcl, Thailand's biggest mobile-phone operator, sank 5 percent.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd dropped for a sixth day in Seoul.

01:00 Australia Consumer Inflation Expectation June +2.3% +2.3%

01:30 Australia Unemployment rate May 5.5% 5.6% 5.5%

01:30 Australia Changing the number of employed May 50.1 -9.8 1.1

The yen surged, jumping to the strongest level in two months against the dollar, after government data showed Japanese investors were net sellers of overseas bonds and stocks for a fourth-straight week. Japanese domestic money managers sold a net 386.9 billion yen ($4.1 billion) of foreign debt and a net 221.8 billion yen of overseas equities in the week ended June 7, according to figures released by the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo today.

The greenback's volatility against the Japanese currency climbed to the highest in more than two years before U.S. economic data that may provide more direction about when the Federal Reserve will begin to slow stimulus.

New Zealand's dollar dropped against all of its major peers after the central bank signaled the currency remains overvalued. Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler reiterated that he is prepared to intervene in currency markets to cap gains in the kiwi dollar. The bank lowered economic growth estimates and maintained its forecast for the three-month bank bill yield, suggesting no increase to the benchmark until mid-2014.

EUR / USD: during the Asian session the pair rose to $ 1.3370

GBP / USD: during the Asian session the pair traded in the range of $ 1.5665/00

USD / JPY: during the Asian session the pair fell below Y95.00

There is another full data calendar for traders Thursday, although early focus will undoubtedly be on the volatile overnight session in Asia. The calendar gets underway from 0600GMT, with the release of the German May wholesale price index. At 0750GMT, German Economics Minister Philipp Roesler will deliver a speech at a jubilee event in Frankfurt. The ECB issues its latest monthly bulletin at 0800GMT, with the content expected to mirror the opening statement from President Mario Draghi at the recent monthly press conference. At 0815GMT, Bundesbank Vice President Sabine Lautenschlaeger sits on a panel to discuss financial regulation at a ZEW conference, in Frankfurt. There is a German government briefing on the upcoming G8 summit, in Berlin, from 0830GMT. Peer Steinbrueck, the main challenger to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in September's national elections, talks to the foreign press in Berlin from 1100GMT.

Change % Change Last

GOLD 1,386.60 9.60 0.70%

OIL (WTI) 95.82 0.44 0.46%

Nikkei 225 -0,21 -28,30 13,289.32%

Hang Seng 21,354.66 -260,43 -1,20%

S & P / ASX 200 4,724.5 -32,56 -0,68%

Shanghai Composite -1,39 -31,21 2,210.9%

FTSE 100 6,299.45 -40.63 -0.64%

CAC 40 3,793.7 -16.86 -0.44%

DAX 8,143.27 -79.19 -0.96%

DJIA 14,995.20 -126.79 -0.84%

S&P 500 1,614.30 -11.83 -0.73%

NASDAQ 3,400.43 -36.52 -1.06%

(pare/closed(00:00 GMT +02:00)/change, %)

EUR/USD $1,3337 + 0,19%

GBP/USD $1,5678 + 0,22%

USD/CHF Chf0,9205 -0,43%

USD/JPY Y95,87 -0,17%

EUR/JPY Y127,88 + 0,02%

GBP/JPY Y150,27 + 0,02%

AUD/USD $0,9475 + 0,40%

NZD/USD $0,7953 + 0,97%

USD/CAD C$1,0207 + 0,20%

01:00 Australia Consumer Inflation Expectation June +2.3%

01:30 Australia Unemployment rate May 5.5% 5.6%

01:30 Australia Changing the number of employed May 50.1 -9.8

07:15 Switzerland Producer & Import Prices, m/m May +0.2% +0.1%

07:15 Switzerland Producer & Import Prices, y/y May -0.1% +0.1%

08:00 Eurozone ECB Monthly Report June

12:15 United Kingdom MPC Member Tucker Speaks

12:30 Canada Capacity Utilization Rate Quarter I 80.7% 81.3%

12:30 Canada New Housing Price Index April +0.1% +0.3%

12:30 U.S. Retail sales May +0.1% +0.4%

12:30 U.S. Retail sales excluding auto May -0.1% +0.3%

12:30 U.S. Initial Jobless Claims June 346 354

12:30 U.S. Import Price Index May -0.5% +0.1%

14:00 U.S. Business inventories April 0.0% +0.3%

22:30 New Zealand Business NZ PMI May 54.5

23:50 Japan Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes May