Europe open: Shares lower on weak Asia session

European markets opened lower on Friday with miners falling after a weak session in Asia and investors awaiting US jobs numbers later in the day.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.43% at 0845 GMT. Oil traded slightly higher ahead of a meeting of the OPEC+ meeting on Sunday.

Oil producing nations last month cut daily oil production in an effort to boost prices. Meanwhile on Friday the European Union reportedly agreed to a $60 price cap on Russian oil with an adjustment mechanism to keep it 5% below the oil price.

“This week oil has been staging gains amid optimism towards the potential loosening of Covid restrictions in China and the opening up of its economy at last, which could potentially unleash demand for crude oil from the world’s second largest economy,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor.

“After a surge in oil prices in the first quarter following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, brent crude has been slowly pushing lower since March. However, this week has reinvigorated the crude bulls.”

BP and Shell fell ahead of the talks.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com