European stock markets are set to open mixed Friday, with investors having to balance lingering concerns about a fresh spike of Covid-19 infections and growing hopes for a quick economic recovery.
At 2 AM ET (0600 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.3% higher. France's CAC 40 futures were down 0.6%, while the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. fell 0.5%.
While hopes for more stimulus to boost the global economy and thus a reasonably quick rebound remain strong, worries about a second wave of the Covid-19 virus have prompted some investors to temper their optimism this week.
On Thursday around 400 workers at a slaughterhouse in northern Germany tested positive for the virus. At the same time, a number of the more populous U.S. states, including Texas, California and Florida, have recorded their largest daily increases and Beijing has struggled to cope with an outbreak which started at a popular food market over the weekend.
Attention now turns to a meeting of the EU leaders to discuss later Friday, via video conference, the European Commission's plan to borrow 750 billion euros against the EU budget, as well as a revised 1.1 trillion euro budget proposal.
There are major disagreements over the size of the recovery package, and whether two-thirds of it should be paid to member states in grants as the commission proposes.
U.K. retail sales jumped 12% in May, after slumping 18.1% the previous month, in a welcome sign that the British consumer may be returning. At the same time, German producer prices remained in negative territory in May, providing food for thought for the European Central Bank given its inflation mandate.
In corporate news, Dutch bank ING (AS:INGA) said it had promoted its chief risk officer Stephen van Rijswijk as its new chief executive. He'll succeed Ralph Hamers, who has moved to become CEO at UBS Group.
Swiss Re (SIX:SRENH) may be in focus after the reinsurer said Friday that it had appointed a new chief underwriting officer and it was streaming by disbanding its life capital business.
Oil prices pushed higher Friday, helped by Iraq and Kazakhstan, two of the countries who have struggled to meet their target cuts, agreeing to compensate for their overproduction in May.
This would take extra barrels out of the global supply, if followed through, and allay concerns of oversupply in the market.
At 2:05 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 1.1% higher at $39.25 a barrel. The international benchmark Brent contract rose 1.1% to $41.99.
Elsewhere, gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,737.45/oz, while EUR/USD traded at 1.1210, up 0.1%.
