European shares were little changed after three days of gains

European shares were little changed after three days of gains down the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index and the highest in 27 months.

Aixtron AG, which manufactures equipment used to produce displays of light emitting diodes, rose 9.3 percent on a report that won an order in China. Allied Irish Banks Plc fell 19 percent after becoming the fourth lender to fall under government control since 2008. SSAB fell 2.9 percent in Sweden's largest steelmaker said its fourth-quarter earnings will be "close to zero."

The Stoxx 600 fell below 0.1 percent to 281.3 at 4:32 pm in London, after swinging between gains and losses of at least 20 times. The indicator has recovered from the collapse that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. 's September 2008, companies reported higher revenues, the European Union rescued Greece and Ireland and the Federal Reserve announced 600 billion dollars of additional bond purchases to support recovery.

"Despite the very low trading volume, it seems as if the risk is still higher," said Christian Falkner, an analyst at Alfa Wertpapierhandels GmbH in Frankfurt. "If the sovereign debt crisis not get much worse, will not impact too negatively on the stock market. In late January, investors start looking at the preliminary reporting of U.S. companies and orientation for 2011. "

Trading volume in the Stoxx 600 has fallen every day this week as Christmas approaches.

U.S. Economy

Reports in the U.S. today showed that consumer spending and purchases of new homes rose, fewer people filed applications for unemployment benefits and benefits, and consumer confidence rose to a maximum of six months.

service industries weakened Britain in October, led by the government, transport and telecommunications services, indicating that economic recovery may have lost momentum. Services, which represent three quarters of the economy, fell 0.4 percent from the previous month, when they rose 0.7 percent, the Office for National Statistics said.

national benchmark indexes fell in 9 of the 18 western European markets. The French CAC 40 lost 0.2 percent, Germany's DAX fell 0.2 percent and Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.2 percent.

Aixtron gains

Aixtron rose 9.3 percent to 27.27 euros, the biggest gain in more than two months. The LED industry in China is expected to install 700 to 800 units of metal organic chemical vapor deposition equipment, or MOCVD, the machines in 2011, more than double the pace of this year, Digitimes.com, without saying where it got the information. A manufacturer of LED has ordered 400 to 500 of Aixtron MOCVD machines, Digitimes said, citing unidentified sources.

SAS AB rose 14 percent to 23.6 kronor, the biggest increase in eight months. Deutsche Lufthansa AG could announce plans to acquire the largest airline in the Nordic region and in the first half of 2011, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Novo Nordisk A / S, the world's largest maker of insulin, advanced 3.2 percent to 633 crowns, the first advance of this week. The company said a study of the last stage of insulin Degludec showed "significantly reduced" risk of hypoglycemia during the night compared with insulin glargine.

Allied Irish Banks plunged 19 percent to 32.5 cents after the Supreme Court said the government can take control of the lender without the approval of shareholders. The state will inject € 3,700,000,000 ($ 4.8 billion) in the Dublin-based bank and raise its stake to 92 percent from 19 percent.

SSAB lost 2.9 percent to 107.6 kronor as the steelmaker said its operating profit in the fourth quarter will be affected by lower shipments and production and is expected to be close to zero.

Ericsson AB fell 1.6 percent to 77.2 kronor as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. downgraded the world's largest manufacturer of mobile phone networks to "neutral" from "buy."

Logitech International SA fell 1.7 percent to 18.45 Swiss francs, the world's largest maker of computer mice was reduced to "neutral" from "outperform" from Exane BNP Paribas.