European stock futures edge higher; U.S. PPI in focus

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com - European stock markets are expected to open marginally higher Friday, rebounding after recent losses, but gains are likely to be tentative ahead of the release of the latest U.S. inflation data.

At 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.3% higher, CAC 40 futures in France climbed 0.3% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. rose 0.1%.

Equity markets have had a difficult week - with the broad-based S&P 500 index heading for a loss of 2.6% on Wall Street and the DAX index in Frankfurt set to lose 1.8% - as investors worried that tightening monetary conditions will likely result in a global recession in 2023.

Next week sees policy-setting meetings by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, and both central banks are expected to hike interest rates once more to tackle inflation still at elevated levels.

That said, the Fed, in particular, could start to reduce the size of its interest rate hikes after signs that inflation may have peaked. 

With this in mind, the spotlight Friday will firmly be on U.S. producer price inflation figures later in the session for more clues about the health of the U.S. economy.

PPI is expected to have climbed 0.2% on the month in November, an annual rise of 7.2%, which would be a drop from 8.0% the prior month.

The economic slate is largely empty in Europe Friday, with Spanish industrial production expected to rise 2.8% on the year in October, a drop from the 3.6% growth the prior month.

In corporate news, Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) announced late Thursday that it has raised CHF 2.24 billion ($1=CHF0.9333) as a result of a capital raise, in addition to the CHF 1.8B raised from an earlier placing of stock with a group of institutional investors led by Saudi National Bank.

Crude oil prices rebounded from one-year lows Friday as traders looked for bargains, but are still set to close the week with heavy losses on worries that the global economy is heading for a recession in 2023.

News that the Keystone pipeline between U.S. and Canada was closed after a spill in Kansas helped sentiment, but the disruption in supply isn’t expected to last long.

By 02:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.6% higher at $71.91 a barrel, while the Brent contract rose 0.6% to $76.57. 

The two contracts were also set to lose about 10% this week, having previously fallen to their weakest levels since December 2021.

Additionally, gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,807.95/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.3% higher at 1.0582.