Europe’s stock markets are expected to open higher on Friday, thanks to a positive mood in Asia about China reopening speculation. This is happening before the official U.S. jobs report, which a lot of people are looking forward to.
At 3:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany went up 0.6%, the CAC 40 futures contract in France went up 0.6%, and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. went up 0.7%.
Related: European stock futures go down because of a Fed rate hike and weak data from China.
European stocks are likely to get a boost from the strong gains seen in Asia on Friday. This is because of renewed rumours that China’s COVID-19 restrictions will be eased soon, which could boost economic activity in the world’s second-largest economy and a major market for European exports.
The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong went up by about 6%. The blue-chip Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 index in China went up by 3.2%, and the Shanghai Composite index went up by 2.4%. Both were trading near their highest levels in three weeks.
A report that came out earlier this week said that the Chinese government was putting together a special committee to talk about reducing its “zero-COVID” policy. The Chinese government denied this, but new rumours started to spread early Friday that this policy will soon change in a big way.
A change like this would be good for the world economy as a whole, but investors in Europe are still worried about how the aggressive tightening of money by the U.S. Federal Reserve will affect them.
Later in the session, the U.S. payrolls report is due, and it is expected to show that nonfarm payrolls grew by 200,000 jobs in October. A positive surprise could make it more likely that the Fed will raise rates again and by a lot in December.
Back in Europe, factory orders in Germany dropped by a big 4.0% from August to September as the Eurozone’s biggest economy struggled with rising energy prices.
Later in the session, the Eurozone will also get the final numbers for manufacturing and service activity in October.
In the business world, Societe Generale SA (EPA:SOGN) will be in the spotlight. This is because France’s third-largest listed bank, Societe Generale, joined other European banks in reporting a higher-than-expected net income for the third quarter. This was due to market volatility, which made trading revenues go up.
Oil prices went up on Friday, thanks to a weakening dollar and new rumours that China plans to ease COVID-related restrictions. Traders are still waiting for news about a possible price cap on Russian exports, which is a plan to make it harder for Moscow to get money without cutting off oil supplies to consumers.
Late Thursday, Reuters reported that the G7 countries and Australia have agreed to set a fixed price instead of a floating rate when they finalise a price cap on Russian oil later this month.
By 3:00 p.m. ET, the price of a barrel of U.S. crude futures was up 2.7% to $90.52, and the price of a barrel of Brent futures was up 2.3% to $96.89.
Related: European stock futures are going down; the focus is on Chinese PMI and Eurozone CPI data.
Both benchmarks are on track to have a good week. This is because supply is seen as tight, as shown by falling U.S. crude stockpiles, and demand worries are rising due to fears of a recession.
Also, gold futures went up 1.3% to $1,651.35/oz, and EUR/USD went up 0.3% to 0.9782.
