European Shares Seen Opening Up As Economic Fears Ease

(RTTNews) - European stocks are likely to open higher on Friday as new data on the U.S. labor market suggested that the economy may not be headed into the downward spiral that traders had feared after the release of last week's worse-than-expected monthly payrolls report for July.

Asian markets followed Wall Street higher, with benchmark indexes in Australia, South Korea and Hong Kong rising over 1 percent as investors cheered signs of resilience in the U.S. labor market.

Positive inflation data from China also boosted sentiment, but regional markets were still headed for weekly losses due to steep losses seen at the beginning of the week. China's consumer price inflation rose more than expected in July partly due to weather disruptions to food supplies, while producer prices continued to fall, official data showed earlier in the day.

The dollar held near a one-week high and gold dipped slightly ahead of a quiet day on the U.S. economic front.

Traders trimmed bets on aggressive Federal Reserve easing in 2024 as U.S. recession worries ebbed.

Treasuries held steady in Asian trade after falling across the curve Thursday.

Oil steadied after a three-day rebound against the backdrop of simmering tensions in the Middle East.

The European economic calendar remains light, with German final CPI data and France's ILO unemployment rate for Q2 due later in the day.

U.S. stocks rose sharply overnight and the 10-year Treasury yield hit 4 percent as the latest weekly jobless claims data came in below forecasts, boosting investors' confidence in the U.S. economy.

A weaker Japanese yen versus the dollar on BOJ's dovish talk also helped spur a relief rally.

The S&P 500 jumped 2.3 percent to post its best single-day gain since November 2022.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite soared 2.9 percent and the Dow rallied 1.8 percent following a sharp sell-off seen earlier in the week.

European stocks recovered from an early slide to end mixed on Thursday. The pan European STOXX 600 ended flat with a positive bias.

The German DAX rose 0.4 percent while France's CAC 40 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 both dipped by 0.3 percent.