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Europe ends lower
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December 7, 2001: 12:32 p.m. ET
U.S. unemployment rate rockets, oil sector down
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LONDON (CNN) - Europe ended lower on Friday, following the steepest monthly rise
in U.S. unemployment since December 1974, when 673,000 jobs were wiped off the payrolls.
The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent in November, reflecting the hundreds of thousands of jobs employers have been cutting in response to the recession.
London's FTSE 100 fell 1.8 percent to 5,271.5 and the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris declined 0.8 percent to reach 4,642.94, while Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax slipped 0.6 percent to 5,238.7.
The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, was down 0.8 percent, with the oil and gas sector sliding 2 percent. Beverages and tobacco sub sectors also fell.
Energy stocks led decliners on renewed scepticism about the chances of OPEC and non-OPEC countries reaching a deal to slash crude oil output next year.
Brent crude for January delivery fell 79 cents to $18.43 on London's International Petroleum Exchange on Thursday as OPEC put together a deal to cut exports. Brent managed a meagre gain of just 2 cents on Friday.
OPEC is still waiting for non-cartel oil producing countries, like Norway, to outline production cuts before it moves to slash exports by 1.5 million barrels a day to boost crude prices.
Shell Transport & Trading, sister company Royal Dutch, and BP fell between 2.2 percent and 3 percent.
The construction sector posted gains with Britain's Aggregate Industries jumping 6.3 percent, Germany's Heidelberger Zement adding 3.4 percent and France's Lafarge climbing 2.4 percent.
Germany's third largest chemicals company Degussa rose 3.4 percent on speculation the group would form a partnership with Europe's second-largest drug maker group Bayer, up 0.3 percent.
Philips Electronics, Europe's biggest consumer electronics company and third-largest chipmaker, slipped 0.8 percent.
STMicroelectronics, Europe's biggest chipmaker fell 5.4 percent while Germany's Infineon added 1.5 percent after the world's largest semiconductor maker Intel said it saw fourth quarter sales at the high end of its prior forecast.
Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia rose 0.7 percent and Swedish rival Ericsson fell 2.3 percent.
In Amsterdam the AEX index was down 0.4 percent and the SMI in Zurich was 0.3 percent lower, while Milan's MIB30 index dipped 0.3 percent.
U.S. stocks stalled midday on Friday as poor unemployment data put a damper on positive forecasts from tech leaders Advanced Micro Devices and Intel. 
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