European Stock Futures Higher Due To Positive Earnings From Yesterday

In advance of the critical euro zone inflation and growth economic statistics, European stock markets are anticipated to begin higher on Friday. This is due in part to robust foreign gains.

Thursday saw significant rises for the major indexes on Wall Street as a result of positive earnings announcements from a number of organisations, including Meta Platforms.

This upbeat mood persisted in Asia overnight, aided by a dovish view from the Bank of Japan in its first monetary policy meeting under new Governor Kazuo Ueda, and is expected to lead to more gains in Europe.

Investors are scouring the economic data calendar in Europe on Friday for more hints about the policymakers' perspective in advance of the policy-setting meeting next week.

Although the ECB is largely anticipated to hike interest rates in early May, future monetary policy choices and the extent of the rise are still up for dispute.

The first-quarter increase in GDP for the euro zone is projected to be 0.2%, up from the prior quarter's unchanged growth and yearly increase of 1.4%.

The French GDP figure, which was also issued earlier on Friday, provided some encouragement, however, as it surprised to the upside by rising by 0.8% in the quarter, instead of the 0.5% anticipated.

The risk-on mentality brought on by largely positive corporate earnings helped oil prices push up on Friday. However, the poor U.S. GDP figures added to concerns about a worldwide slowdown, and it now appears that oil prices will register a second weekly decline.

Key Events:

• German Unemployment Rate at 08:55 GMT.
• German GDP at 09:00 GMT.
• Eurozone GDP at 10:00 GMT.
• German CPI at 13:00 GMT.
• US PCE Price Index at 13:30 GMT.

(investing.com, reuters.com)