By Adam Haigh

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — European stock futures advanced as investors awaited U.S. data on jobless claims and consumer confidence for signals on the recovery in the world’s largest economy. U.S. index futures were little changed, while Asian shares declined.

Stagecoach Group Plc, the operator of Britain’s biggest rail-commuter franchise, may slide as JPMorgan Chase & Co. advised selling the shares, reversing its previous recommendation to buy.

Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index expiring in March gained 0.5 percent to 2,246 as of 7:05 a.m. in London. FTSE 100 Index futures added 0.4 percent. The March contract on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring the same month rose 0.1 percent and the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index retreated 0.5 percent.

Investors are “clearly nervous over precisely what lies ahead in terms of sovereign debt and emphasizing the fact that few will want to be leaving money on the table as we go into the Christmas break,” said Terry Pratt, a trader at IG Markets in Melbourne.

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index has tumbled 14 percent this year as the euro-area debt crisis spread to Spain and Italy and amid concern that growth in the U.S. and Chinese economies is slowing. Banks and commodity companies have posted the largest declines among 19 industry groups on the gauge, both slumping more than 30 percent.

U.S. Unemployment

Investors are turning their attention to U.S. jobless claims data after last week’s report showed the fewest applications for unemployment benefits since May 2008. The Labor Department figures will be issued today at 8:30 a.m. in Washington. The University of Michigan confidence survey results are due an hour and 25 minutes after that.

Jobless claims rose to 380,000 in the week through Dec. 17 from 366,000 in the previous week, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment increased to 68 in December from 67.7, a Bloomberg poll showed. For more visit: Business Week

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