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London - European shares fell early on Monday, trimming some of the previous session's sharp gains after Italy's sovereign debt rating was cut late on Friday and following soft economic data from China and Japan.
S&P downgraded Italy to BBB-, just one notch above junk, from BBB, citing weak growth and poor competitiveness that undermine the sustainability of its huge public debt.
"The Italian downgrade is a reminder that the European sovereign debt crisis has not vanished overnight," said Henk Potts, director of global research at Barclays.
"Sentiment is still a bit fragile in the short term...investors need to be looking at a medium- to long-term time horizon in Europe."
Expectations that the European Central Bank (ECB) will start a bond-buying programme next year helped to limit losses, with the FTSE MIB just 0.3% lower.
"The rating is now one level above junk, but it makes it even more of a certainty that the ECB will do something," said Ioan Smith, director of KCG Europe.
Just before lunch the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.4% at 1 399.30 points, having surged 1.8% on Friday after much better than expected US monthly jobs data.
Data from elsewhere was less encouraging. China's exports rose 4.7% in November from a year earlier, while imports dropped 6.7%, well below expectations and adding to concerns that the world's second-largest economy could be facing a sharper slowdown.
Japan's economy shrank more than initially reported in the third quarter on declines in business investment.
Energy shares fell again as Brent dropped almost $2 a barrel after Morgan Stanley cut its forecast for crude and the market received little support from China's trade data.
ENI was down 2.5% and Royal Dutch Shell slipped by 1.3%.
The STOXX oil and gas index has tumbled about 23% since June, wiping roughly $240bn off market capitalisation, more than the entire market value of Shell, Europe's biggest oil major, Thomson Reuters data shows.
