The French market is higher in early afternoon trading Friday, despite some weak cues from Wall Street where San Francisco Federal Reserve President John Williams indicated Thursday that the Fed may slow the pace of its asset purchases as early as this summer if various labor market indicators continue to register appreciable improvement.
On a day of light economic news from the region, Eurozone construction output continued its decline for the fifth month in a row in March, Eurostat reported. Production in construction fell at a faster pace of 1.7 percent, following a 0.3 percent drop in February. Building construction and civil engineering slid 1.4 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.
New car registrations in the European Union increased from last year in April, for the fist time in more than one-and half years, data released by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association showed.
Sales of new passenger cars advanced 1.7 percent on an annual basis to around 1.04 million units in April, reversing the 10.2 percent fall recorded in March. The increase was the first since September 2011.
Additionally, Credit Suisse raised European auto sector to ''Overweight'' from ''Benchmark.''
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is losing 0.24 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is falling 0.36 percent.
The CAC 40 index is currently up 0.5 percent.
Renault is gaining 3.7 percent and Peugeot is climbing 6.3 percent.
Tire maker Michelin is up 3.1 percent.
Societe Generale and BNP Paribas are rising 2.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.
Credit Suisse cut European food producers to ''Underweight'' from ''Benchmark.'' Danone is losing 1.4 percent.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX and the UK's FTSE 100 are making gains, while Switzerland's SMI is lower.
Across Asia/Pacific, markets were mostly positive. China's Shanghai Composite Index climbed 1.4 percent and Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.7 percent. Australia's All Ordinaries rose 0.3 percent.
In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, stocks fell, with a disappointing batch of U.S. economic data on initial jobless claims, housing starts and regional manufacturing activity along with comments from the regional Federal Reserve official weighing on the markets. The Dow dropped 0.3 percent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.2 percent and the S&P 500 shed half a percent.
In the commodity space, crude for June delivery is falling $0.10 to $95.06 per barrel and June gold is falling $12.6 to $1374.3 a troy ounce.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com