Investors are focused on a flood of crucial economic data, including November growth figures for the UK and results from the U.S. banking industry.

Investors are focused on a flood of crucial economic data, including November growth figures for the UK and results from the U.S. banking industry, as European stock markets began Friday marginally higher.

The optimistic start to the new year was supported by European shares closing higher on Thursday. This was made possible by U.S. inflation statistics, which demonstrated that the Fed's aggressive rate rises are having the expected effect. The possibility of the U.S. central bank slowing its rate increases further in early February is indicated by this.

After predicting in June that the global economy would grow at a 3% rate this year, the World Bank reduced its prediction earlier this week to just 1.7%.

In November, the U.K. gross domestic product increased 0.1% on a monthly basis, above expectations, although industrial production decreased by 0.2% and manufacturing production decreased by 0.5%.

Data in France showed that the French CPI came in at 0.1% MoM in December and 5.9% YoY, as expected. In Spain, the CPI MoM came in at 0.2% and 5.7% YoY, lower than expectations.

Vodafone is set to be in the news in the business world after the Financial Times revealed that the telecoms giant is considering laying off several hundred employees, the most of whom would work at its London headquarters, in order to save expenses.

The American financial behemoths Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Wells Fargo will all report quarterly earnings. Investors are interested in their opinions on the likelihood of a recession this year and how it would impact consumer spending.

Despite a little decline on Friday, oil prices are still expected to post strong weekly increases due to rising optimism that China's reopening would result in a surge in demand from the world's top importer this year.  

The weaker U.S. consumer price index, which indicated a less aggressive outlook for the Federal Reserve and depressed the value of the U.S. dollar, gave the oil market a lift on Thursday.

(investing.com, reuters.com)