European stocks may open higher on Friday as investors react to strong earnings from the likes of Amazon, Snap Inc. and Pinterest.
Asian markets were mostly higher, with Hong Kong shares leading regional gains as trading resumed after a holiday break.
Gold prices were supported by a weaker dollar and soft bond yields, as investors looked ahead to the Labor Department’s closely-watched monthly jobs report, due later in the day for an update on the recovering U.S. jobs market.
Economists expect employment to rise by 150,000 jobs in January after an increase of 199,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 3.9 percent.
Oil headed for a seventh weekly gain amid signs of a fast-tightening market as frigid weather swept across large swathes of the United States.
Meanwhile, analysts said that an explosion on a Nigeria oil-producing vessel with a daily capacity of 22K BPD will not make a significant interruption to global supply.
U.S. stocks tumbled overnight to snap a four-day winning streak, as a historic plunge in the stock price of Facebook’s parent company triggered the worst sell-off in technology shares since 2020.
Investors also digested weak service sector and factory activity data as well as a report showing a decline in jobless claims for a second straight week.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite slumped as much as 3.7 percent, while the Dow lost 1.5 percent and the S&P 500 gave up 2.4 percent.
European stocks fell on Thursday as investors reacted to the disappointing Facebook outlook, a 25 bps rate rise by the Bank of England and a significant hawkish shift by the European Central Bank.
After having kept interest rates and forward guidance unchanged despite record inflation, President Lagarde adopted a dramatically more hawkish tone in the press conference than on any previous occasion.
The pan European Stoxx 600 plunged 1.8 percent. The German DAX fell 1.6 percent, France’s CAC 40 index lost 1.5 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 shed 0.7 percent.
Market Analysis
European Shares Seen Up In Cautious Trade
2022-02-04 05:45:50
