European stocks gain after Italian auction

MADRID (MarketWatch) 

European stock markets closed higher Thursday in thin trading conditions, helped by gains for Wall Street and after an Italian debt auction was taken in stride.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index ended up 0.9% at 242.46.
The index had lost 0.7% in the prior session, a move that snapped a three-day winning streak.
U.S. stock markets opened firmer after weekly jobless claims again came in under 400,000.
The Italian government raised around 7 billion euros ($9 billion), against a planned range of €5 billion to €8.5 billion.
It saw yields fall at the sale of 3- and 10-year debt from the euro-era highs produced in a November auction.
“It’s an iceberg dodged,” said Justin Urquhart Stewart, co-founder of Seven Investment Management. “Had we hit it, that would have caused real unpleasantness. Missing it doesn’t mean so much.”
But he said a single auction doesn’t solve the overarching problems of the sovereign-debt crisis. “We still need to get to the single plan of how you manage the euro. ... We know what has to happen.
A smaller number of consenting members who participate in discipline of the euro and the rest have to find a more elegant method of default,” he said.
Shares of Banca Popolare dell’Emilia Romagna S C A fell 2.6% in Milan and UniCredit SpA  declined 1.5%.
U.S. stocks climbed.
First-time claims for unemployment benefits rose to 381,000 last week from 366,000 the previous week, but held below the 400,000 level that is seen as the breakeven point for job creation. 
Also, the National Association of Realtors said the number of Americans signing contracts to purchase previously-owned homes climbed a far-more-than-forecast 7.3% in November.
Urquhart Stewart said volume faded fast in Europe.
London markets are open on Friday for a half day and closed on Monday in observance of the New Year’s holiday.
The week has seen gains for drug stocks and infrastructure companies, he noted. “After all the bad news, there’s the realization that there are very good quality assets at pretty good prices in the large caps and dividend players,” he said.
“The air has changed over Christmas from one of fearful gloom to one that realizes the U.S. economy is going to have a low, slow drawn-out, anemic recovery, which is not such bad news,” with places such as China and India slowing but still growing, said Urquhart Stewart.
The French CAC 40 index  rose 1.8% to close at 3,127.56, carried in part by a 2.1% rise in shares of energy group Total SA
The German DAX 30 index rose 1.3% to finish at 5,848.78, helped by a 2.9% rise for drug group Bayer AG
The FTSE 100 index rose 1.1% to settle at 5,566.77 on its last full day of trading for the week, supported by gains for energy stocks such as Royal Dutch Shell PLC , up 1.9% and Petrofac Ltd. , up 2.2%.
Also helping, shares of heavyweight Vodafone Group PLC  rose 1.4%.
Analysts at Zachs Equity Research upgraded shares to neutral from underperform on Wednesday , citing prospects for strong growth in emerging markets.