* FTSEurofirst down 0.9 pct after gains earlier in week
* Banks top losers; CS upgrade helps autos limit index fall
* Index on track for first 4-week winning streak since '07
By Sitaraman Shankar
LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - European shares fell in early
trade on Friday as investors took a breather after pushing
equities up 10 percent over the past three days and looked to
U.S. jobs data for signs of any recovery in the economy.
At 0747 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top
European shares was down 0.9 percent at 774.20 points, led lower
by falls in bank stocks.
The benchmark rose 4.9 percent on Thursday after world
leaders clinched a $1.1 trillion deal to combat the worst
economic crisis since the Great Depression and said financial
rules would be tightened to stop it happening again.
UBS <UBSN.VX>, Societe Generale <SOGN.PA>, Credit Suisse
<CSGN.VX> and HSBC <HSBA.L> were down 1.9-4.5 percent.
"We increased our equities exposure on Monday, before the
G20, going slightly less underweight as we believe we should
have better newsflow regarding the U.S. economy in the next
months," said Thierry Lacraz, strategist at Pictet.
"The (U.S.) unemployment numbers will unfortunately be
relatively bad and from the point of view of psychology not good
at all for stocks but it is a lagging indicator," he said,
adding that he was looking at factors like purchasing managers'
indexes (PMI) and industrial orders.
Analysts expect U.S. non-farm payrolls to tumble by 650,000
for March after a similar loss in February. The report is due at
1230 GMT.
Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk <NOVOb.CO> was the worst loser
in Europe, sliding 10 percent after a U.S. advisory panel failed
to back its experimental diabetes drug Victoza, with votes split
on whether it was safe enough to come to market due to worries
over cancer.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 <> was down 0.7
percent while Germany's DAX <> and France's CAC lost 0.9
percent.
GOOD RUN
Auto shares added to gains from the previous session as
Credit Suisse upgraded the sector to "overweight" from "market
weight".
Daimler <DAIGn.DE> gained 4.9 percent, BMW <BMWG.DE> rose
2.4 percent, and Renault <RENA.PA> jumped 6 percent. The DJ
STOXX European autos sector index <.SXAP> was the only gainer
among the STOXX sectoral benchmarks, up 1.5 percent.
The FTSEurofirst is on track for its fourth successive week
of gains, the longest winning streak since October 2007.
The index is now up 20 percent since March 9, when it hit
the lowest point in its 12-year lifetime.
The mini-rally, in the midst of a bear market, has been
supported by reassuring updates from banks at the centre of the
credit crisis, some positive macroeconomic data and policy
action.
But Lacraz said there was plenty of reason for caution.
"We're still very dubious about what could happen to the
global economy in 2010 but it's too early to worry about 2010
and people are looking at the market over the next three
months," he said.
"The current enthusiasm will be tested in the next few days
with first-quarter (corporate) results coming out, as well as
the prospect of further bailouts of troubled companies and a
bankruptcy for GM <GM.N>," said Romain Boscher, head of equity
management at Groupama AM, while Lacraz said he expected
positive surprises from the financial sector results and some
disappointments elsewhere.
(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson in Paris; Editing by
Greg Mahlich)
