European Shares Seen Opening Up On China Optimism

(RTTNews) - European stocks are seen opening on a positive note Friday amid optimism about the Chinese economy and stimulus push.

China's manufacturing activity returned to growth in October as companies ramped up production and purchasing to meet higher demand amid improving confidence, survey results from S&P Global showed today.

The Caixin manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 50.3 in October from 49.3 in September.

Also, China's residential property sales rose in October, marking the first on-year increase of 2024.

Asian stocks were broadly higher, even as Chinese and Hong Kong markets crept higher ahead of a meeting of China's top legislative body from Nov. 4-8, with officials likely to approve over 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) in additional borrowing in the coming years to shore up the economy.

Japan's Nikkei index was down over 2 percent despite the yen retracing some of its recent gains after the release of weak manufacturing data.

London copper edged up on a softer dollar as investors await the all-important U.S. jobs report as well as a reading on manufacturing activity later in the day for additional clues on the Fed's rate trajectory.

Closer home, factory purchasing managers' survey results and house price data from the U.K. are due, headlining a light day for the European economic news.

The dollar steadied against major peers while gold edged up slightly as the latest core PCE inflation data suggested that the Fed is still on a bumpy course in this last mile to quell inflation and declare victory.

Oil prices were up nearly 2 percent in Asian trading following reports that Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days.

On the earnings front, Apple reported weaker-than-anticipated sales in China. while Amazon and Intel issued strong guidance.

Exxon Mobil and Chevron are due to report their earnings results before the U.S. opening bell later in the day.

U.S. stocks tumbled overnight as Meta Platforms and Microsoft warned of rising costs for artificial intelligence.

In economic news, consumer spending beat expectations in September and unemployment claims dropped to a five-month low while labor costs posted their smallest increase in more than three years in the third quarter amid cooling wage growth, separate set of data showed.

PCE index, the Fed's preferred inflation measure, revealed a slight decline in the headline inflation rate to 2.1 percent year-over-year in September while core PCE inflation held steady at 2.7 percent versus 2.6 percent expected, adding to recent concerns the Fed will lower rates more slowly than hoped.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite plummeted 2.8 percent, the S&P 500 plunged 1.9 percent and the Dow dropped 0.9 percent.

European stocks fell notably on Thursday as data revealed a bigger than expected increase in euro zone inflation.

The pan European STOXX 600 declined 1.2 percent. The German DAX dipped 0.9 percent, France's CAC 40 lost 1.1 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gave up 0.6 percent.