LONDON — European markets were flat on Friday as investors digested a fresh round of corporate earnings and looked ahead to a crucial Spanish election over the weekend.
EUROPEAN MARKETS
TICKER COMPANY PRICE CHANGE %CHANGE
.FTSE
FTSE 100 7650.78 4.73 0.06
.GDAXI
DAX 16142.73 -61.49 -0.38
.FCHI
CAC 40 Index 7401.93 17.02 0.23
.FTMIB
FTSE MIB 28861.73 45.98 0.16
.IBEX
IBEX 35 Idx 9522.9 3.3 0.03
The pan-European Stoxx 600
was unchanged in early trade. Tech stocks shed 1.6% to continue the previous session’s slide, while insurance stocks added 0.8%.
The European blue chip index closed out Thursday’s session 0.4% higher, though the tech sector dropped 2.5% on the back of weak U.S. tech earnings.
Shares in Asia-Pacific fell on Friday as investors reacted to Japanese inflation figures, with the core consumer price index rising slightly in June from the previous month.
U.S. stock future nudged fractionally higher in early premarket trade after the Dow Jones Industrial Average wrapped up a ninth consecutive day of gains, its longest rally since 2017. The S&P 500
and Nasdaq
, however, both closed the day in negative territory.
Back in Europe, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party suffered a heavy blow in a series of by-elections overnight, losing two seats in parliament to the main opposition Labour Party and centrist Liberal Democrats. The results were ominous for Sunak’s ruling party as it looks ahead to a general election in 2024.
Spanish voters head to the polls on Sunday in a pivotal snap general election that could end the four-year tenure of left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and mark a shift to the right in Europe’s sixth-largest economy.
Corporate earnings on Friday come from Swiss miner Glencore
. Earnings season kicks off in earnest next week, when Europe’s major banks, pharmaceutical firms, automakers, energy giants and aircraft manufacturers are all due to report.