European Shares Seen Opening Up On Earnings Optimism

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open on a positive note Friday as weak U.S. economic data pressured bond yields and tech giants delivered robust financial results.

Facebook parent Meta announced its first-ever dividend after the U.S. closing bell Thursday, while iPhone maker Apple announced its first revenue gain in over a year.

Amazon, the world's largest retailer, beat fourth-quarter revenue expectations, benefiting from strong seasonal trading and robust growth in its powerhouse cloud computing business.

Asian markets advanced along with U.S. stock futures and gold was on course for its best weekly gain in seven as investors await the release of the all-important U.S. jobs report later in the day for further clarity on when the Fed could start cutting interest rates.

France's statistical office INSEE is scheduled to publish industrial production figures for December later in the day. Output is forecast to grow 0.2 percent on month, following a 0.5 percent rise in November.

The dollar eased and bond yields dipped after overnight data suggested that the U.S. labor market is losing momentum.

Oil headed for the biggest weekly loss since early November after reports that Hamas and Israel have come to an agreement on a ceasefire, a crucial step toward ending the conflict.

U.S. stocks rebounded overnight after logging their biggest daily drop of 2024 the previous day on hawkish Fed policy statement.

The Dow rose 1 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 both surged around 1.3 percent as Treasury yields slipped on weaker labor market data.

U.S. jobless claims rose last week, and fourth quarter unit labor costs undershoot forecasts while business activity in the manufacturing sector continued to contract in January, separate reports showed.

European stocks closed lower for the first time in six days on Thursday despite encouraging Eurozone inflation data and signals from the Bank of England that it will likely lower borrowing costs this year for the first time since 2020.

The pan European STOXX 600 dropped 0.4 percent. The German DAX eased 0.3 percent, France's CAC 40 shed 0.9 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 slipped 0.1 percent.