LONDON — European stocks are heading for a lower open Friday after closing the previous session at all-time highs, as investors react to another deluge of corporate earnings and economic data.
Britain’s FTSE 100 is seen around 44 points lower at 7,034, Germany’s DAX is set to fall by around 109 points to 15,531 and France’s CAC 40 is expected to slide around 32 points to 6,602, according to IG data.
Shares in Asia-Pacific declined again on Friday, heading for their worst month since March 2020, as volatile trading continued for Chinese tech stocks and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index tumbled.
Stateside, stock futures are pointing to a lower open on Wall Street, with futures contracts on the Nasdaq 100 falling sharply after e-commerce behemoth Amazon‘s first earnings miss for three years.
Earnings in focus
Back in Europe, earnings continue to take center stage with BNP Paribas, Renault, Air France-KLM and IAG among the big names reporting Friday.
BNP Paribas reported a 26% annual rise in net profit for the second quarter to 2.9 billion euros ($3.44 billion), exceeding market expectations on the back of a rebound in business activity.
Renault posted a quarterly net profit of 354 million euros for the first half of the year, up from a substantial loss of nearly 7.3 billion euros for the same period last year as the pandemic shut down production across the industry. The French automaker forecast a full-year profit in 2021 despite the challenges caused by the global semiconductor shortage.
L’Oréal on Thursday reported an acceleration in second-quarter sales growth in part due to a surge in U.S. makeup sales as lockdowns eased.
On the data front, initial flash estimates for euro zone harmonized inflation in July are due at 10 a.m. London time, along with second-quarter preliminary GDP estimates.
German annual consumer price inflation spiked to 3.1% in July, its highest since August 2008, prompting a leading services sector trade union to call for immediate and substantial wage increases.
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