Europe shares fall, weighed down by energy, mining

* 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 (RDSa.L) and miners, notably Rio Tinto (RIO.L), as a stronger dollar depressed commodity prices.

At 1120 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 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. [ID:nLF328969]

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. [ID:nLF436431]

"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.