European Shares Seen Up After Wall Street Rally

(RTTNews) - European shares are seen opening broadly higher on Friday after Wall Street stocks swept higher overnight to extend their longest rally in a year and a half.

The upside, however, may remain limited as U.S. stock futures slipped ahead of the expiration of a massive number of options contracts tied to U.S. stocks and indexes.

Asian markets traded mostly higher, with Japanese stocks reversing early losses after the Bank of Japan maintained its ultra-loose monetary policy and signaled it is in no rush to phase out stimulus.

Investors are also pinning hopes that China will roll out more stimulus to support a slowing economy.

Gold edged lower despite the dollar hitting a five-week low after hawkish comments from ECB President.

Oil dipped slightly after rallying about 3 percent to a one-week high Thursday on data showing a jump in refinery runs in top crude importer China.

U.S. stocks posted strong gains overnight on the back of mixed economic data and optimism that the Fed will not follow through with more rate hikes.

U.S. retail sales unexpectedly rose unexpectedly in May, import prices fell in the month and jobless claims were flat for the week ended June 30 while production at U.S. factories almost stalled in May, separate reports showed.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 both rallied around 1.2 percent to hit their closing levels in over a year, while the Dow climbed 1.3 percent to reach a six-month closing high.

European stocks closed broadly lower on Thursday after the European Central Bank raised rates by 25 basis points to a 22-year high and signaled another hike in July.

The central bank also lowered the growth projections for the euro area and raised inflation projections through 2025.

The pan European STOXX 600 eased 0.1 percent. The German DAX slipped 0.1 percent and France's CAC 40 shed half a percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.3 percent.