By Sruthi Shankar
(Reuters) -European stocks steadied on Friday, after a recent selloff, as strong results from retail giant Amazon and a host of other companies outweighed recent jitters around slowing economic growth across the continent.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index edged up 0.1% after shedding about 3% in the past three sessions.
Wall Street futures also rose as a strong forecast from Amazon.com Inc outweighed a downbeat sales outlook from iPhone maker Apple.
The focus largely was on U.S.
payrolls data, due at 1230 GMT, which is expected to show job growth likely slowed further in July but retained enough momentum to shield the economy from a recession.
“Having just come off the back of another 25 basis points rate hike from the Federal Reserve last week and what may well be the final rate hike of this cycle, the U.S.
payrolls data is likely to continue to showcase the resilience of the U.S. economy,” Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a note.
Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic have rallied in recent weeks, driven by signs of resilience in the U.S.
economy and hopes that major central banks are near the end of their monetary tightening cycle.
However, weak data out of Europe and Asia and the surprise downgrade on the U.S. credit rating set the STOXX 600 for its first weekly loss in four.
Earnings were a mixed bag in Europe.
French lender Credit Agricole climbed 5.7% as strong insurance and consumer finance results helped it report upbeat quarterly earnings.
Italy’s state-owned bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena jumped 3.0% as it posted above-forecast earnings for the second quarter.
Dragging media shares down, WPP, the world’s biggest advertising group, slid 7.1% after it downgraded its full-year like-for-like growth forecast.
Vonovia slipped 2.5% as Germany’s largest real estate group slipped to a 2 billion euro ($2.19 billion) second-quarter loss and wrote down the value of its properties by 3 billion euros.
Among the STOXX 600 companies that have reported so far, 56% have beaten analysts’ profit estimates, as per Refinitiv IBES data.
In a typical quarter, 54% top estimates.
Citi strategists upgraded their earnings outlook for 2024, saying “soft landing” scenarios look plausible and that economically sensitive cyclical sectors should benefit the most.
(Reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Savio D’Souza)
