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London - European shares held close to a five-year high on Tuesday, with mixed earnings providing little direction in cautious trade before US jobs data.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst was down 0.44 points, or flat in percent terms, at 1 280.76. The five-year high struck on Monday followed eight days of gains.
Deutsche Lufthansa fell 3.8%, the top FTSEurofirst 300 faller, after it said operating profit for the first nine months of the year fell to about €660m from €907m in the year-earlier period.
However, Novartis, the fifth biggest company on the STOXX Europe 600 by market capitalisation, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data, rose 0.6% after lifting its full-year guidance for a second quarter in a row.
"Earnings in Europe have started out badly and can only get worse; the question is how much people are willing to discount weak earnings," said Nick Xanders, who heads up European equity strategy at BTIG.
"Novartis is a different kettle of fish, because it can see what's going on next quarter and it looks fairly decent."
Of the 8% of companies to report so far on the STOXX 600, 41% have missed expectations, compared with 33% on the S&P 500, StarMine data showed.
The top riser was Norwegian insurer Gjensidige, up 9% after it set higher financial targets as it reported forecast-beating third-quarter earnings.
September US jobs data, delayed by a partial shutdown of the US government, is due at 14:30.
