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Euro stocks turn positive
LONDON, England (CNN) -- European markets reversed earlier losses in afternoon trading on Tuesday on indications Wall Street would open higher. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.8 percent to 3,971.8, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax gained 0.7 percent to 2,871.55, while the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris added 0.3 percent to 2,875.67. The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, was down 0.6 percent. The benchmark has rallied more than 20 percent from March's six-year lows. But some strategists said the euro's recent surge to within a whisker of its launch levels in January 1999 meant European stock indexes would struggle to make much headway. "We have already seen how the weak dollar has helped U.S. companies and hurt European companies in the first quarter, but we will not see the biggest hit until the second quarter,'' Rolf Elgeti, chief European strategist at Commerzbank, told Reuters. "So we could see a stream of profit warnings between now and July, when the next quarterly results season begins." The euro, which has risen more than 12 percent this year against the dollar, was hovering around the previous session's four-year high. One euro currently buys $1.1662. As the euro rises, European goods and products become more expensive to sell abroad, while cheaper imports are sucked into the 12-nation eurozone, strangling growth and corporate earnings. In corporate news, Deutsche Telekom (FDTE), Europe's biggest phone company, rose 3.4 percent to 11.99 euros after Kai-Uwe Ricke -- the new Chief Executive of Europe's largest telecoms carrier -- told shareholders 2003 would be the year it would turn around and post a full-year profit again. (Full story) Shares in France's Axa (PCS) and Dutch Aegon fell 1.7 percent and 1.1 percent respectively after investment bank UBS Warburg cut its ratings on both stocks. Drug maker AstraZeneca (AZN) fell 2.4 percent to 2,488 pence after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration called an advisory meeting for July 9 to review its cholesterol drug Crestor. Analysts told Reuters that it was unusual for the FDA to hold a meeting for a well-established drug like Crestor. Music giant EMI (EMI) dropped 1.8 percent to 132.9 pence after posting an annual profit, even though sales dropped. (Full story) The AEX index in Amsterdam rose 0.3 percent and Milan's MIB30 index climbed 0.4 percent, while the SMI in Zurich was little changed. In the U.S. on Monday, stocks tumbled as the dollar slid further against the euro. The Dow Jones industrial average sank 2.1 percent, the Nasdaq composite tumbled 3 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 2.5 percent. Wall Street was expected to open higher later on Tuesday
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