The Coming Week in Europe: Investors to Focus on Oil Prices and LSE's Future

BERLIN -- If some Europeans can't get to work next week because of fuel shortages, at least they can sit home and watch round-the-clock coverage of the Olympics in Australia.

After protests against the high cost of fuel across the Continent caused gas pumps to dry up, the situation is expected to slowly normalize in the coming week in even the hardest-hit countries such as the U.K. and Belgium. That should be good news for Europe's economies, if not for some sports-crazy Europeans who would rather be stranded at home to watch the action in Sydney.

Whereas most Americans will be treated to only highlights and emotion-filled montages of their sports heroes, many Europeans will be hit with 24-hour Olympic programming, showing live coverage of even such events as archery and handball.

However, for those investors not particularly interested in the finer Olympic aspects of shooting arrows into a target, there will be plenty of other things going on next week as well. The fuel crisis will certainly keep oil shares on everybody's mind, but the ever-popular tech sector will battle for the limelight. Plus, the fate of the London Stock Exchange may take another turn if the spurned Deutsche Boerse decides to mount a takeover bid.

Although the share prices of BP (BP), Shell (SC) and TotalFinaElf (TOT) have been pumping -- unlike their gas stations across Britain -- some investors don't favor the sector long term.

"The energy branch is on our watch list," said Robert Halver, an equity strategist for Delbrueck Asset Management in Frankfurt. "Once the status quo changes -- current oil prices -- we'd reduce" the sector. Like many European investors, Halver is a fan of telecoms and techs.

Next week could see some volatility for some of Europe's Internet auction sites, as Germany's Ricardo.de reports Thursday on the status of its rocky merger with the U.K.'s QXL (QXLC). How things are shaping up between the two could mean quite a bit to eBay's (EBAY) European future.

The region's Internet service providers may have a rough start to the week if investors question their valuations after UBS Warburg rated T-Online a "sell" on Friday. Predictably, T-Online lost 1.50 euros, or 4.9%, to 29 ($25.10).

The circus that is Europe's financial markets could take another step toward the absurd next week, as the Deutsche Boerse is now said to be considering a takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange, after the LSE officially shelved the Germans' iX merger plans. Deutsche Boerse is apparently considering a friendly -- or unfriendly -- bid along with allied stock exchanges in Milan and Madrid.

Whether the British would shun such a bid outright -- as they did the hostile one from Sweden's OM Gruppen -- is anybody's guess, but you can imagine they won't likely be pulling for many Continental athletes in Sydney.

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