European Shares Seen Tad Higher As Bond Yields Dip

(RTTNews) - European stocks are likely to open on a positive note Friday as Treasury yields held steady after declining Thursday on the back of soft U.S. economic data.

The U.S. economic calendar is relatively quiet today, with a report on new residential construction along with remarks by several Fed officials likely to garner investor attention.

Closer home, reports on EU Harmonized CPI and U.K. retail sales may sway markets.

The dollar was set for a week drop and gold traded near two-week highs as markets priced in the possibility of a Fed rate cut in the first half of 2024.

Oil headed for a fourth weekly loss after sinking into a bear market on signs of oversupply, rising stockpiles and concerns over waning demand in the U.S. and China.

Asian markets traded mostly lower, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling over 2 percent as high-level talks between U.S. and Chinese leaders yielded little results and Alibaba Group Holding said it had reversed plans to spin off and list its $11 billion cloud business.

Japanese stocks were seeing modest gains after Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said the central bank would "patiently" maintain ultra-easy policy until inflation nears the 2 percent target.

U.S. stocks ended narrowly mixed overnight as investors digested a string of weak economic data and disappointing forecasts from Cisco and Walmart.

A measure of U.S. jobless claims rose to a three-month high last week, retail sales fell for the first time in seven months in October and industrial production fell more than expected in the month, adding to expectations for Fed rate cuts.

The Dow slipped 0.1 percent to snap a four-day winning streak while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 both finished marginally higher.

European stocks fell broadly on Thursday following three days of gains on softer-than-expected U.S. inflation readings. The pan European STOXX 600 dropped 0.7 percent.

The German DAX inched up 0.2 percent while France's CAC 40 shed 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 lost 1 percent.