European Stocks Mixed; BASF, Gazprom Scrap November Deal to Swap Assets

European stocks are mixed, with major indices paring or ceding initial gains, though shares in put-upon sectors including oil and commodities have staged a modest rebound. In Frankfurt BASF falls after announcing that itself and Gazprom have agreed to tear up a November deal that would have allowed the Germany company to exit a low-margin trading business. But in Paris investors say “tres bien” to IT services provider Atos’ $1.05 billion deal for the IT outsourcing operations of Xerox Corp. (XRX), which will make the U.S. the French company’s largest market.