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Investing.com – European stock markets are expected to open cautiously higher Friday, helped by strong earnings from online retail giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), but with investors still digesting the European Central Bank’s hawkish turn.
At 2:05 AM ET (0705 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.2% higher, CAC 40 futures in France climbed 0.7% and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. rose 0.7%.
Amazon, the last of the influential FAANG companies to report, delivered stellar fourth-quarter results after the bell on Wall Street Thursday, underpinned by strong cloud growth as well as a gain on its investment in electric vehicle company Rivian.
Shares of Snap (NYSE:SNAP) and Pinterest (NYSE:PINS) surged in extended trading, too, following strong quarterly reports, pushing U.S. equity futures higher and helping the early tone in European markets.
However, gains are likely to be tempered with caution after ECB President Christine Lagarde declined after Thursday’s policy-setting meeting to repeat previous guidance that an interest rate increase this year was extremely unlikely, leaving the door open to a 2022 hike.
The ECB had been seen as among the most dovish of the world’s leading central banks, with the Bank of England lifting interest rates for the second consecutive meeting on Thursday and the Federal Reserve guiding towards a March increase.
In corporate news, French drugmaker Sanofi (NASDAQ:SNY) posted a hefty rise in its 2021 earnings, and said it would aim to further increase its profit this year, hoping for a comeback after losing ground in the Covid-19 vaccine race.
Intesa Sanpaolo (OTC:ISNPY), Italy’s biggest bank by assets, posted full-year net profit in line with expectations, and said it would reward investors with more than 22 billion euros in dividends and a share buyback over the period to 2025.
Turning to the economic data slate, German factory orders rose 2.8% on the month in December, a stronger number than expected but still a slowdown from the 3.7% growth the previous month, as Covid-19 restrictions weighed. Eurozone retail sales, later in the session, are expected to more vividly illustrate the impact of the Omicron surge late last year, dropping 0.5% on the month.
However, the day’s major economic data release comes in the U.S., with the widely watched monthly official jobs report due at 8:30 AM ET (1330 GMT). Nonfarm payrolls are expected to rise by 150,000 in January, a slowdown from the previous month’s near 200,000 gain.
Oil prices climbed Friday as winter weather swept across large areas of the U.S., threatening to disrupt crude supplies in the largest energy consumer in the world.
Crude is heading for a seventh consecutive weekly gain, with the market also boosted by rising geopolitical tensions as Russian troops remain massed at the Ukrainian border and the conflict in Yemen intensifies.
By 2:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.6% higher at $90.78 a barrel, passing $90 for the first time since 2014, while the Brent contract rose 0.4% to $91.46.
Additionally, gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,809.15/oz, while EUR/USD traded 0.2% higher at 1.1458.
