LONDON -- European equities are mixed to slightly positive Thursday, although they're lacking any real conviction following this week's severe losses. A slew of earnings results are giving the markets cause to edge in both directions, while the concerns over the eurozone crisis and the downbeat economic numbers seen this week are never far from sight. Early premarket trade has the U.S. playing a more negative tune, with the S&P 500
Regardless of the market's movements, a number of companies are losing ground today. Here are three American depositary receipts the S&P should outperform.
Alcatel-Lucent
The phone equipment maker is down almost 8.5% today after it announced it will be slashing 5,000 jobs -- some 6% of its staff -- in an effort to cut costs after reporting a loss of 254 million euros for the latest quarter. The company said net cash shrank by 517 million euros to 236 million euros in the quarter, and it hopes the job losses save it an extra 750 million euros.
Siemens
The technology major is down more than 3% Thursday after it warned that reaching its full-year earnings goal of 5.2 billion euros was looking more difficult to achieve. It did report that profit for the latest quarter climbed from last year's 763 million euros to 1.23 billion euros, although this was below the majority of estimates. Siemens also reported lower-than-expected orders, casting some doubt over future revenue streams, although sales did rise by 10% in the latest quarter to 19.5 billion euros.
Telefonica
Telefonica has been trading almost 2% lower today after it suspended its dividend payments and cut revenue forecasts. The company scrapped its dividend for 2012, expecting to save it around 10.2 billion euros, and suggested it will resume half of the 1.5 euro per-share payment toward the end of next year.
Telefonica reported operating income falling 6.6% to 5.25 billion eruos, while sales climbed just 0.1% to 15.47 billion euros. The company also announced it will slash the pay of top executives, including the CEO, by 30% as part of its cost-saving efforts.
As usual, this morning's European trading saw some stocks lose ground -- and perhaps provide some European buying opportunities. Indeed, legendary investor Warren Buffett has recently spent more than $1 billion buying a European large-cap stock that's currently trading well below its 2012 high. If you want to know what Mr. Buffett has bought within Europe, this special Motley Fool report -- "The One European Share Warren Buffett Loves" -- reveals everything, including the price he paid. You can download the report today for free. But hurry -- the report is available for a limited time only.
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