By Peter Nurse
Investing.com -- European stock markets traded higher Friday, helped by strong earnings from blue-chip companies ahead of the key monthly U.S. employment report.
At 3:45 AM ET (0845 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 0.7% higher, the CAC 40 in France rose 0.1%, and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.3%, the latter two indices at 52-week highs, while the pan-Europe STOXX 600 gained 0.3%, climbing to a all-time high.
Robust corporate earnings have helped the European indices post gains Friday, as companies recover from the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Adidas (OTC:ADDYY) stock rose 7.6% after the German sportswear company raised its 2021 sales outlook on Friday, saying it expects strong demand driven by new products as well as big sports events like the European soccer championship and the Copa America.
Siemens (DE:SIEGn) stock rose 2.7% after the German industrial giant raised its full year guidance for the second time this year as its net profit soared for the second quarter of fiscal 2021, helped by the sale of its mechanical-drives business Flender.
BMW (DE:BMWG) stock rose 0.2% after the German carmaker reiterated its full-year profit margin outlook, but it also warned that rising raw material costs could hurt earnings moving forward.
BioNTech (DE:22UAy) stock rose 4.2%, rebounding after Thursday’s sharp losses, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected a U.S. proposal to waive patent protections for coronavirus shots, a move which would have hit the German drugmaker’s bottom line.
On the flip side, Credit Agricole (OTC:CRARY) stock fell 0.7% despite the French bank posting a sharp increase in net profit for the first quarter, but expectations were sky high after previous strong results from its peers. In the U.K., Barclays (LON:BARC) stock rose 2.1% after activist investor Edward Bramson sold his stake, abandoning his attempt - funded by Barclays' competitors on Wall Street - to get rid of its investment bank.
The focus now shifts to the release of the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report later Friday, with this release closely watched given the Federal Reserve has made it clear that the strength of the labor market recovery is key in deciding its course for monetary policy.
Expectations are running high, maybe to the tune of one million jobs being added, after a release Thursday showed the number of Americans filing new claims last week for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level since the pandemic started.
Back in Europe, German industrial production rose 2.5% in March, above expectations, while the equivalent French number fell 0.8%, pointing to an uneven recovery throughout the Eurozone.
Oil prices headed higher Friday, heading for another weekly gain as robust trade data from China, released earlier Friday, highlighted the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
U.S. crude futures traded 0.1% higher at $64.79 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.2% to $68.19. Both contracts are up more than 2% this week, heading for their first back-to-back weekly increases since early March.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,819.50/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.2075.