European stock markets are seen opening mixed Friday, stabilizing after the previous session’s sharp losses ahead of the release of Eurozone inflation data for June.
At 2:05 AM ET (0605 GMT), the DAX Futures contract in Germany traded 0.1% lower, CAC 40 Futures in France dropped 0.1%, while the FTSE 100 Futures contract in the U.K. rose 0.3%.
European markets struggled on Thursday, with the main indices all dropping around 1%, weighed down by concerns that rising Covid cases will stunt global growth just as central banks start to fret about soaring inflation.
Earlier Friday, the Bank Of Japan downgraded its real GDP forecast for 2021 while keeping its monetary policy unchanged, now expecting growth of 3.8% compared with the 4.0% forecast it made in April.
Goldman Sachs has also cut its 2021 growth forecasts Friday for most of the countries in Southeast Asia, where Covid-19 infections are surging.
This hit to growth may have a read across to European markets with Covid cases also starting to rise again here despite the population being more vaccinated on average.
With this in mind, investors will keep a close eye on the release of the latest consumer price inflation data from the Eurozone, ahead of next week’s policy-setting meeting by the European Central Bank.
The June CPI release, due at 5 AM ET (0900 GMT), is expected to see the annual figure fall back to +1.9%, dropping below the bank’s 2% target.
The FTSE MIB climbed up by 0.12% to 24,907.82. In the cash markets, the DAX futures Germany was trading up 0.42% to 15,673.17. CAC 40 futures in France rose by 0.38% to 6,517.60 while the FTSE 100 futures in the U.K. were up by 0.37% to 7,037.88. ,at the time of writing.
