European Shares Seen Tad Lower At Open

(RTTNews) - European markets may open slightly lower on Friday, although tech stocks may rise following strong earnings from e-commerce giant Amazon and iPhone maker Apple.

Apple's stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results eased investor concerns about slowing demand in China.

Amazon's cloud revenue rose at the fastest clip in nearly three years, driven by accelerating AI-linked demand.

Meanwhile, streaming leader Netflix has approved a significant 10-for-1 stock split, the company's first stock split in over a decade aiming to make shares more accessible to a broader base of retail investors.

Also, reports suggest that Netflix is actively exploring a bid for Warner Bros Discovery's studio and streaming business.

Asian markets traded mixed, with Japan's Nikkei hitting a record high on the back of a weaker yen and strong gains in the tech sector.

Chinese and Hong Kong stocks retreated after a survey showed China's factory activity shrank for a seventh month in October.

Gold edged down slightly but was on track for a third straight monthly gain as the ongoing U.S. government shutdown completed one month.

Oil prices traded lower and were on course for a third straight monthly decline on supply glut fears.

Overnight, U.S. stocks ended lower as investors showed little reaction to President Trump's announcement that he had struck a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to trim tariffs in exchange for renewed promises from Beijing to crack down on fentanyl exports, resume U.S. soybean purchases and keep rare earths exports flowing.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plunged 1.6 percent as shares of Meta and Microsoft fell sharply on worries over surging AI spending.

The S&P 500 lost 1 percent and the narrower Dow dipped 0.2 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Thursday as investors digested the Fed, ECB and BoJ interest-rate decisions.

After keeping interest rates unchanged at 2 percent for the third meeting in a row, the European Central Bank repeated that policy was in a "good place".

The pan European Stoxx 600 closed flat with a negative bias. France's CAC 40 shed half a percent while the German DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both ended on a flat note.