European Shares Likely To Open On Firm Note Ahead Of US Jobs Report

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open a tad higher on Friday after U.S. stocks finished mostly higher overnight following a late burst of buying.

Asian markets traded mixed in cautious trade as investors awaited the release of all-important U.S. jobs data for August later in the day for clues on the size of the Federal Reserve's next interest-rate hike.

Investors also await speeches by ECB Governing Council members as well as U.S. factory orders data for additional clues about inflation and the path ahead for interest rates.

Meanwhile, the voting in the U.K. leadership election officially closes today and the result will be announced on Monday.

The dollar headed for its third weekly gain in a row, gold fell below the key $1,700 level and Treasury yields were mixed after new U.S. data confirmed the Federal Reserve's stance that it can remain aggressive with the tightening of policy.

Oil prices rose more than 2 percent in Asian trade ahead of an OPEC+ meeting on Sept.5 to decide its future output policy.

U.S. stocks reversed course before ending mixed overnight, as data showed manufacturing grew steadily in August and the number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance unexpectedly dropped last week.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite ended 0.3 percent lower following new restrictions on exports of cutting-edge chips from Nvidia to China. The Dow rose half a percent and the S&P 500 edged up 0.3 percent.

European stocks fell sharply on Thursday as investors reacted to new COVID-19 lockdowns in China and disappointing manufacturing data from Asia and the euro area.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 gave up 1.8 percent. The German DAX fell 1.6 percent, France's CAC 40 index shed 1.5 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 1.9 percent.