Euro Shares Snap Six-Session Winning Streak

European shares ended lower, snapping a six-session winning streak, as commodity shares tracked falling crude and metal prices and the focus shifted back to global economic growth after the U.S. election.

FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares closed 2.2 percent lower at 953.24 points. The index has lost nearly 37 percent so far this year.

Barack Obama swept the White House in a decisive victory that, at last count, had him with 349 electoral votes to John McCain's 163, making him the first African-American president in U.S. history. He also soared past McCain in the popular vote.

Analysts noted that with Barack Obama's election prize comes an albatross, the world's worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

"Back to the realities of financial world and it seems that the euphoria didn't last that long, with stock markets around the globe peering into what they increasingly believe will be a long and protracted period of global recession," said Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners.

Commodity stocks were one of the biggest sector losers as crude oil fell 7 percent, settling below $66 a barrel, and copper, zinc and nickel prices declined.

BP, Royal Dutch Shell, gas producer BG Group, Cairn Energy and Tullow Oil all lost at least 2 percent.

Banking shares were also lower, with Standard Chartered off 4.3 percent, UBS down 2 percent and Commerzbank off 3.4 percent.

"Nothing immediately is going to change as a result of the election victory. We still haven't broken the downtrends," said Darren Winder, head of economics and strategy at Cazenove. "Sentiment is going to remain quite fragile. Banks continue to be troubled by deteriorating loan quality and prospects of further writedowns," he added.

Political leaders urged U.S. President-elect Obama to help forge a new economic order to lead the world out of its worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

Germany's cabinet agreed to a package of stimulus measures to give Europe's biggest economy a 50 billion euro ($64.2 billion) boost, while Italy will approve a plan to support banks.

Gloomy data from Britain and the 15-nation euro zone added to expectations of hefty interest rate cuts on Thursday. British manufacturing output fell for the seventh month running to mark the longest stretch of declines in 28 years. In the euro zone, service sector activity touched a fresh decade low in October.

In the United States, the service sector shrank more than expected in October, according to a report by the Institute for Supply Management.

A series of European bank results did little to lift gloom around the sector, with a recurring trend of falling profits and rising bad debts stemming from the global financial crisis.

Shares of France's biggest bank, BNP Paribas, fell 1.5 percent after the bank reported its profit was cut by more than half.

Shares of Royal Bank of Scotland rose 5.8 percent as the bank looked to raise up to 3 billion pounds ($4.7 billion) from a government-backed bond.

ArcelorMittal fell more than 14 percent after the world's largest steelmaker forecast a weaker final quarter, slashed output and froze growth plans in the face of a global slowdown.

Hannover Re shares slipped 5.5 percent after the world's fourth-biggest reinsurer said it planned to pay no dividend for 2008 after reporting a 395 million euro ($512.2 million) net loss in the third quarter due to writedowns on investments and hurricane damage claims.

Across Europe, the FT-SE 100-share index slipped 2.3 percent, Germany's Xetra DAX index shed 2.1 percent and France's CAC-40 index skidded nearly 2 percent.

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