European shares extend losses after U.S.jobs data

                                
 * FTSEurofirst 300 down 2.1 percent
                                
 * Banks take most points off the index
                                
 * For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU]
                                
 
                                
 By Brian Gorman
                                
 LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - European shares extended losses on
Friday, falling to a new four-week low, after jobless numbers in
the United States for September were higher than forecast.
                                
 At 1316 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> was down 2.1
percent at 960.99 points, having hit a new low for the day of
958.65. The index, which slumped 45 percent last year, is still
up 49 percent from the record low of early March.
                                
 Banks led the losers, with BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA>, Banco
Santander <SAN.MC>, BBVA <BBVA.MC>,  Commerzbank <CBKG.DE>,
Credit Suisse <CSGN.VX>, Deutsche Bank <DBKGn.DE>, HSBC
<HSBA.L>, Societe Generale <SOGN.PA>, UBS <UBSN.VX> and
UniCredit <CRDI.MI> down between 1.8 and 11.4 percent.
                                
 U.S. employers cut a deeper-than-expected 263,000 jobs in
September, lifting the unemployment rate to 9.8 percent,
according to a government report on Friday that fueled fears the
weak labour market could undermine economic recovery.
                                
 The Labor Department said the unemployment rate was the
highest since June 1983 and payrolls had now dropped for 21
consecutive months.
                                
 Analysts polled by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to
drop 180,000 in September [ID:nN01277999]
                                
 "They were worse than expected" said Mark Priest, senior
trader at ETX Capital. "Generally, everything is going to look
pretty bad for the rest of the day."
 The Dow Jones <.DJI>, S&P 500 <.SPX> and Nasdaq Composite
<.IXIC> were down between 0.7 and 0.8 percent in early trade.

                                
 MINERS, OILS FALL
                                
 Commodity shares, which have performed strongly in the
rally, were out of favour. Crude oil prices were down 2.5
percent at $69.04 a barrel.
                                
 Total <TOTF.PA>, ENI <ENI.MI>, BP <BP.L>, Royal Dutch Shell
<RDSa.L>, Repsol <REP.MC> and StatoilHydro <STL.OL>  were down
between 0.8 and 2.6 percent.
                                
 Miners Antofagasta <ANTO.L>, BHP Billiton <BLT.L>, Lonmin
<LMI.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>, Vedanta <VED.L>, Xstrata <XTA.L>
fell between 1.7 and 4.7 percent. 
 European credit derivatives indexes widened further after
the jobless data, with the main Europe index breaking over 100
basis points.
                                
 The investment-grade Markit iTraxx Europe index <ITEEU5Y=GF>
was at 100.75 basis points, according to data from Markit, 2.25
basis points wider than before the data report and 7.75 basis
points more than late on Thursday.
                                
 Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 <.FTSE> was down 1.6
percent, Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> fell 1.7 percent and France's
CAC 40 <.FCHI> shed 2.1 percent.
                                
 British insurer Legal & General <LGEN.L> shed 5.7 percent,
following five days of gains that had been fuelled by bid
speculation.
                                
 Munich Re <MUVGn.DE> gained 0.6 percent after receiving a
boost from two broker price target upgrades.
 (Additional reporting by Dominin Lau; Editing by Hans Peters)