European Shares Seen Tad Lower At Open

European stocks are seen opening a tad lower on Friday despite optimism about tech earnings and easing geopolitical concerns.

Helping ease trade tensions, the United States and Taiwan have reached a trade deal that lowers tariffs on Taiwanese goods from 20 percent to 15 percent in exchange for $250 billion investment to increase production of semiconductors, energy and artificial intelligence in the U.S. and $250 billion in credit guarantees.

Beyond the trade deal, traders also await U.S. industrial production data as well as speeches from Fed officials later in the day for greater clarity on the economic, inflation and monetary policy outlook.

Currently, the CME FedWatch Tool gives a 62.5 percent chance of a Federal Reserve rate cut in June.

Asian markets traded mixed but were on track for their best weekly run since May this morning after U.S. stocks recovered from their first back-to-back losses of the year overnight. Technology stocks led regional gains on revived AI-driven growth optimism.

Treasuries were little changed after falling in the New York session. Gold extended losses to hover around $4,600 an ounce after having surged to record highs earlier this week.

Oil was little changed after settling down around 4 percent on Thursday to end a five-day winning streak on easing Iran-U.S. tensions.

U.S. stocks ended higher overnight as chip and bank stocks rebounded from losses over the two previous sessions on upbeat earnings news from the likes of Taiwan Semiconductor, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

A sharp pullback in oil prices on easing geopolitical tensions and new data pointing to a solid jobs market also contributed to the upside.

Data showed U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly dropped to the lowest since November last week, defying economists’ estimates.

The Dow gained 0.6 percent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 both edged up by 0.3 percent.

European stocks closed broadly higher on Thursday as U.S. President Trump appeared to soften rhetoric against Iran and expressed optimism about reaching an agreement on Greenland.

The pan European Stoxx 600 advanced half a percent. The German DAX rose 0.3 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 added half a percent while France’ CAC 40 slipped 0.2 percent.

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