The German market reversed its early losses and is marginally higher in afternoon trading Friday, even as global economic worries continued to linger. China's weaker-than-expected export growth dampened sentiment early in the day, but easing of inflation at home mitigated some of the weakness.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.14 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is dropping 0.22 percent. .
The DAX index opened slightly lower at 7,153 and languished in negative territory in early trade. The index is currently adding 0.02 percent.
Steel giant ThyssenKrupp is adding 3.6 percent. Diversified chemical firms Basf and Bayer are moderately up.
Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank are rising 1.7 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.
Automakers Volkswagen and BMW are moderately up, while Daimler is falling 0.9 percent. HSBC cut its price target on Daimler to 58 euros from 62 euros.
Outside the main index, Kabel Deutschland is adding 1.7 percent after the cable operator's price target was increased to 48 euros from 42 euros at JPMorgan.
Clothing and footwear firm Hugo Boss is up 1.5 percent in Frankfurt. Morgan Stanley initiated the stock with "Overweight" and a price target of 80 euros.
HeidelbergCement and chipmaker Infineon Technologies are losing about 1 percent each.
HSBC raised its price target on Deutsche Boerse to 77 euros from 68 euros. The stock is, however, falling 0.2 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the French CAC 40 is losing 0.61 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 is losing 0.18 percent. Switzerland's SMI is falling 0.37 percent.
In economic news, German inflation eased for the first time in nine months in May, as the pace of increase in energy costs slowed, official figures revealed. Nonetheless, inflation continued to stay above the central bank's target.
U.K. output price inflation slowed to 5.3 percent on a yearly basis in May from 5.5 percent in April, in line with economists' expectations. The index of industrial production dropped 1.7 percent month-on-month compared to an increase of 0.2 percent in March. Economists were expecting it to remain flat in April.
Meanwhile, Britons' inflation expectations for the year ahead eased slightly in May, a survey by the Bank of England and GfK NOP showed. Consumers' one-year ahead inflation expectations slowed to 3.9 percent in May from 4 percent in February.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries gained 0.29 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.10 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.50 percent. However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng dipped 0.84 percent.
China's trade surplus increased in May, but the growth was far below economists' expectations as imports surged along with a cool off in export growth. Exports grew 19.4 percent year-on-year in May to $157.16 billion, but was weaker than the 20.4 percent growth forecast by economists.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, the Dow rose 0.6 percent, the Nasdaq climbed 0.4 percent and the S&P 500 advanced 0.7 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for July delivery is losing $0.97 to $100.96 per barrel, while gold is slipping $0.3 to $1542.4 a troy ounce.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.