European stocks edge lower; Credit Suisse gains ahead of U.S. PPI data

By Peter Nurse

Investing.com - European stock markets edged lower in nervous trading Friday as investors look to the latest U.S. inflation data amid growing recession worries.

At 04:00 ET (09:00 GMT), the DAX index in Germany traded flat, while CAC 40 in France traded down 0.1% and the FTSE 100 in the U.K. dropped 0.3%.

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.

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.

Back in Europe, Spanish industrial production rose 2.5% on the year in October, a drop from the 3.6% growth the prior month.

In corporate news, Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) stock rose 1.9% after the embattled Swiss lender 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.

AB Foods (LON:ABF) stock fell 0.7% despite the retailer confirming its 2023 financial guidance, noting lingering inflationary pressures.

Crude oil prices stabilized around one-year lows Friday, and 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 04:00 ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.2% higher at $71.60 a barrel, while the Brent contract traded 0.1% higher at $76.22.

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 0.1% to $1,803.50/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.1% higher at 1.0562.