European Shares Seen Tad Higher At Open

(RTTNews) - European stocks look set to open a tad higher on Friday despite Wall Street enduring another down session for tech stocks.

Traders are pinning hopes that a stronger euro will take some heat out of inflation and give the European Central Bank more room to lower borrowing costs.

U.S. equity futures ticked lower as Apple topped fiscal first-quarter profit and sales estimates, but warned of margin pressures, fueling concerns about AI investment returns.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Canada with a 50 percent tariff on any aircraft sold in the U.S., the latest salvo in his trade war with America's northern neighbor.

Also, Trump signed an executive order aimed at imposing trade tariffs on countries that provide oil to Cuba, a move that puts pressure on Mexico.

Trump would be announcing his pick for a nominee to chair the Federal Reserve later today, amidst tensions with current chair Jerome Powell over interest rates.

According to media reports, former Federal Reserve governor Kevin Warsh has emerged as the top contender.

In another significant development, the U.S. Senate came to a deal on a DHS funding measure in an effort to avoid a partial government shutdown.

In economic releases, Eurozone GDP and jobs data along with a report on U.S. producer prices for December may garner investor attention later in the day.

Asian stocks were mixed, with Chinese and Hong Kong markets tumbling after the state-owned Securities Times warned against speculative trading.

Elsewhere, Tokyo's consumer inflation cooled again in January, easing pressure on the Bank of Japan to hike rates again soon.

Treasuries edged lower in early Asian trade and the dollar was poised for a second straight weekly decline, while gold fell further from record highs to trade below $5,250 an ounce.

Rising nearly 24 percent so far in January, spot gold was headed for its best monthly gain since the 1980s.

Oil prices hovered near multi-month highs and were set for significant monthly gains on concerns that a potential U.S. attack on Iran could affect flows from the Middle East.

Oil prices were down nearly 1 percent in Asian trade after surging more than 3 percent in the New York trading session overnight.

U.S. stocks ended mostly lower overnight after Microsoft reported slower growth in its cloud business.

The Dow recovered from an early sell-off to close 0.1 percent higher while the S&P 500 slid 0.1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite shed 0.7 percent.

European stocks ended mixed on Thursday as investors digested a raft of earnings reports from some of Europe's biggest companies.

The pan European Stoxx 600 dropped 0.2 percent. The German DAX plummeted 2.1 percent as SAP results disappointed. France's CAC 40 finished marginally higher and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.2 percent.