European shares shed gains after U.S. jobs data

European shares were flat in early afternoon trade on Friday, shedding modest gains after U.S. employers were unexpectedly shown to have cut 85,000 jobs in December, knocking hopes of a stronger, faster recovery.

At 1411 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was flat at 1,060.41 points. Immediately before the data, it had been at the day's high of 1,067.81, but then turned negative, falling as low as 1,058.27.

The heavyweight banking sector added most points to the index.

BNP Paribas, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, UBS and UniCredit rose between 1.3 and 3.3 percent.

Energy companies were a drag on the index, as crude prices slipped 0.9 percent.

Total, BP and Royal Dutch Shell fell between 0.7 and 0.9 percent.

The U.S. jobs numbers cooled optimism on the labour market's recovery, keeping pressure on President Barack Obama.

"They are pretty poor, much worse than the market had expected. It is a bump in the road towards a U.S. labour market recovery that had been hoped," said Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index.

"But, I think people are also looking at the fact November's figures were revised up, and while they conflict with December's figures it makes (it seem less) … terrible," Raymond said.

Futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were down between 0.2 and 0.4 percent.