* FTSEurofirst 300 falls 0.6 pct, Euro STOXX 50 down 0.6 pct
* Downbeat company comments on global growth spook investors
* Banking stocks get respite after strong sell-off
* Bears in control of market, says Aurel BGC chartist
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on
By Blaise Robinson
PARIS, July 28 (Reuters) - European stocks retreated in early trade on Thursday, falling for the fourth straight session as a raft of disappointing earnings and downbeat comments sparked fears about the outlook for company profits.
Investors were particularly rattled by comments from
chemicals major BASF
Siemens AG
At 0900 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.6 percent at 1,082.48 points. The benchmark index has lost about 2 percent so far this week, reversing a big chunk of last week's tentative rally.
Market players also fretted about the impasse in U.S. debt ceiling talks that has sparked fears of a U.S. debt default and a credit rating downgrade, with only days left before a deadline for a deal.
House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner was expected to put its deficit reduction plan to a vote on Thursday, but President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the bill and a majority of the Democratic-controlled Senate has vowed to vote against it.
"There will be a deal, that's not the problem. The problem is that the whole thing has been a wake-up call for the market, a real black swan: we're now starting to price in a default risk for the world's biggest economy, which was inconceivable just a few months back," said David Thebault, head of quantitative sales trading at Paris-based broker Global Equities.
"One-year CDS (credit default swap) prices on U.S. debt have moved above five-year CDS prices, that signals serious tensions and is a clear red flag," Thebault said, referring to credit insurance on U.S. sovereign debt.
"But we might have to wait a few more months for the stock market downturn to really start, when U.S. payrolls figures turn ugly and the country loses its triple-A rating." he said.
GOLD PAUSES
Gold prices took a breather on Thursday after reaching record highs earlier this week while the Euro STOXX 50 volatility index , Europe's main barometer of fear, was up 2.1 percent after flirting with a one-week high earlier in the session.
Around Europe, UK's FTSE 100 index was down 0.3 percent, France's CAC 40 down 0.9 percent, and Germany's DAX index down 0.1 percent, dragged lower by Siemens and BASF.
Other industrial stocks took a beating on Thursday after posting disappointing results, with Vallourec down 16 percent and Finmeccanica down 14 percent.
So far in the earnings season, European companies were equally split on earnings beats and misses. Of the 82 companies that have reported second quarter results, half of them beat or met forecasts, data from Thomson Reuters StarMine showed.
That compared with 79 percent of beat or meet for the 205 U.S. companies that have reported, StarMine showed.
After suffering hefty losses over the past few sessions, banking stocks took a breather on Thursday, despite poor results posted by Credit Suisse .
Shares in the Swiss lender were down 1.8 percent after it posted lower-than-expected quarterly net profit, hit by weak trading activity, and said it would cut about 2,000 jobs.
Europe's STOXX bank index , which has lost about 25 percent since mid-February, currently trades at 7.2 times 12-month forward earnings, a price-to-earnings ratio not seen since March 2009 during the financial crisis.
The euro zone's blue chip Euro STOXX 50 index was down 0.6 percent at 2,677.48 points, testing a key support level -- the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of last week's recovery rally.
Alexandre Le Drogoff, technical analyst at Aurel BGC in Paris, remains negative on the outlook for the index.
"There was a long black candlestick on the chart yesterday, signalling that bears are in control of the market," he said.
"The chart works in favour of sellers and hopes of significant rebound are getting smaller and smaller. We think that the index will revisit the year's low at 2,608 points, before falling further towards the 2,500 zone."
(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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