The European markets are trading mixed on Friday, as talks continue between Greece and its private bondholders, ahead of the key GDP data from the U.S. The major Asian markets closed mixed, while the U.S. index futures are higher.
A deal on restructuring Greece's debt is a pre-condition for securing more aid from its international creditors ahead of March, when the country must repay 14.5 billion euros of maturing debt.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is falling 0.05 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is losing 0.09 percent.
The German DAX is adding 0.26 percent and Switzerland's SMI is gaining 0.03 percent. The French CAC 40 and the UK's FTSE 100 are sliding about 0.2 percent each.
In Frankfurt, utilities RWE and E.ON are advancing 2.8 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively.
BMW and Daimler are seeing notable gains, while Volkswagen is up 0.80 percent. Truckmaker MAN is advancing 1.2 percent.
Commerzbank cut K+S to "Hold" from "Add." The stock is down 0.4 percent.
HeidelbergCement is declining 2.4 percent. Henkel is falling 1.4 percent.
Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank are moderately lower.
CTS Eventim is climbing about 5 percent after Deutsche Bank raised the stock to "Buy" from "Hold."
alstria office REIT is advancing 3.4 percent. The stock was reinitiated with a "Hold" rating at Deutsche Bank.
BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole are declining 2.8 percent each in Paris. Societe Generale is falling 1.9 percent. JPMorgan cut BNP Paribas to "Neutral" from "Overweight."
Peugeot is losing 1 percent and Renault is falling 0.3 percent.
GDF Suez is flat. UBS removed the stock from its "Most Preferred List."
EADS is gaining 1.9 percent. Exane BNP raised the stock to "Outperform" from "Underperform."
Barclays reduced Carrefour to "Underweight" from "Equalweight." According to media reports, the supermarket group is close to firing its Chief Executive Officer Lars Olofsson, and is in talks to replace him with Georges Plassat. The stock is up 2.2 percent.
In London, Anglo American is losing 0.6 percent and Rio Tinto is falling 0.5 percent. Barclays cut Anglo American to "Equal Weight" from Overweight," while starting Rio Tinto with an "Equal Weight" rating.
Oil giant BP is declining 1.8 percent. A U.S. federal judge said BP would have to shoulder all costs related to the Deepwater Horizon disaster that struck the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, thereby lowering the potential liability Transocean Limited faces over the incident. Transocean is climbing 6.9 percent in Zurich.
BT Group is dropping 1.7 percent. Vodafone is down 0.5 percent.
British Sky Broadcasting is gaing 1.9 percent and Carnival is gaining 1.9 percent.
Imperial Tobacco is advancing 1.7 percent and Next is climbing 1.9 percent.
London Stock Exchange reported a 17 percent growth in income for the third quarter, as revenue grew 7 percent, benefiting from strong performance by the CCP business in Italy. The stock is up 0.4 percent.
In economic news, Germany's import price inflation eased sharply and for a third consecutive month in December. Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed that inflation eased to 3.9 percent in December from 6 percent in November and 6.8 percent in October. Economists expected the rate to be 3.8 percent.
Italy successfully auctioned 11 billion euros worth of treasury bills in two tranches at relatively benign credit terms.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries gained 0.45 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.31 percent, while Japan's Nikkei 225 edged down 0.09 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Steet. The Commerce Department is set to release the first read of its fourth quarter GDP estimate shortly. The domestic economy is estimated to have expanded at a trend-like pace of 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter following a 1.8 percent expansion in the previous quarter.
In the previous session, the major averages climbed off their worst levels of the day going into the close but still ended the session in the red. The Dow edged down 0.2 percent, the Nasdaq fell 0.5 percent and the S&P 500 slid 0.6 percent.
In the commodity space, crude for March delivery is adding $0.44 to $100.18 per barrel, while February gold is losing $3.2 to $1723.5 a troy ounce.
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