Investing.com - European stock markets advanced for a fourth straight day on Thursday, amid positive earnings reports and ahead of the release of key data on the U.S. jobs market.
During European midday trade, France's CAC 40 was up 0.32%; Germany's DAX rose 0.34%; Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.57%; and the EURO STOXX 50 rose 0.38%.
Earlier Thursday, ABB Ltd., the world's biggest builder of power grids, said its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled. Also, reports showed that Swiss Re swung to a net profit in 2009, French insurer AXA almost quadrupled annual net earnings and the consultancy Capgemini reported better-than-expected earnings.
The outlook for U.S. markets, meanwhile, was mixed: Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated a fall of 0.01% and S&P 500 futures pointed to a decline of 0.03%, but Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a rise of 0.23%.
Later in the day, the U.S. Department of Labor was set to publish data on jobless claims, a key measure of the job market's health, and its monthly Producer Price Index.