* FTSEurofirst 300 falls 1.4 percent
* Miners, oils down as commodity prices slip on firm dollar
By Peter Starck
FRANKFURT, June 15 (Reuters) - European shares were weaker at midday on Monday, weighed down by oil and gas stocks such as Royal Dutch Shell and miners, notably Rio Tinto, as a stronger dollar depressed commodity prices.
At 1120 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 1.4 percent at 872.89 points. The index fell 0.2 percent on Friday, breaking a three-day winning streak, but ended last week with a gain of 1.5 percent.
"Today, the bears are on the prowl," said Giuseppe-Guido Amato, strategist at brokerage Lang & Schwarz.
"There is no news. The market is driven by technical preparations for the triple-witching on Friday," Amato said, referring to the June 19 expiry of contracts for stock index futures, stock index options and single stock options.
Stock market volatility often increases in the run-up to triple-witching.
International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the worst of the global economic crisis may be yet to come. "The large part of the worst is not yet behind us," Strauss-Kahn said.
The 16-country euro zone lost a record 1.22 million jobs in the first quarter of 2009. The number in employment fell 0.8 percent against the previous quarter to 146.2 million.
"Markedly weakening labour markets are a major threat to recovery prospects in the Eurozone. Sharply higher and rising unemployment will weigh down on Eurozone consumer spending," said IHS Global Insight Chief Economist Howard Archer.
"It will be some time before any improvement in economic activity feeds through to help the jobs outlook," he said, adding that "economic activity will remain too weak to actually generate jobs overall until well into 2010."
JPMorgan said it might take months before the earnings outlook for cyclical companies becomes clearer.
"Signs whether a recovery has started and what normal demand is should become clearer after September, which could be the first month less affected by production shutdowns and de-stocking," JPMorgan said in a note, citing feedback from its June 10-11 European Capital Goods CEO conference.
"Companies see early signs of stabilization in parts of their business, but most remain skeptical about a recovery. Derived from the comments at the conference, we expect most companies to report similar or worse results in Q2 than in Q1 and give a cautious near-term outlook," JPMorgan said.
DOLLAR RALLY
Oil & gas stocks took the most points off the European benchmark index by midday on Monday, with Royal Dutch Shell down 2.5 percent, Total 1.6 percent lower, BP dropping 1.6 percent and ENI down 1.3 percent.
Oil fell over 1 percent towards $71 a barrel, extending its retreat from eight-month highs.
The oil price slide was attributed mainly to U.S. dollar strength after Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the dollar's role as the world's main reserve currency was unlikely to change in the near future.
The stronger dollar also hurt base metals, with London copper prices down 3 percent.
Mining stocks fell, with Rio Tinto down 5.6 percent, Xstrata down 4.6 percent and Vedanta Resources down 3.8 percent.
Among steelmakers, which together with miners carry the most weight in the DJ Stoxx basic resources index -- which was down 3 percent -- ArcelorMittal fell 4 percent, Voestalpine dropped 3.5 percent and Salzgitter lost 1.9 percent.
Autos rivalled basic resources as the day's weakest European sector after world number two truck maker Volvo said its truck deliveries fell 57 percent year-on-year in May.
Volvo's share price fell 2.3 percent. Among other truck makers Daimler was down 4.7 percent, MAN SE dropped 2.8 percent, and Scania fell 1.5 percent.
Navigation device maker TomTom NV dropped 11.6 percent on the company's plan to raise 430 million euros in a share issue to pay down part of its debt.
Air France-KLM fell 4.5 percent after Citigroup cut its rating on the stock to "hold" from "buy".
Bayer dropped 3.3 percent after the chief executive of its pharmaceutical unit told a newspaper that price pressure in the industry was intensifying due to the economic crisis.
Later in the day investors will focus on the New York Federal Reserve's Empire State Manufacturing Survey for June due at 1230 GMT. (Additional reporting by Brian Gorman in London, editing by Will Waterman)