Europe open: Stocks stage festive rally on pre-Xmas Friday

European stocks found enough Christmas cheer to edge ahead at the open on the last Friday before the holiday break, shrugging off a downbeat session in the US overnight.

The pan-regional Stoxx 600 was up 0.07% at 0841 GMT with most major bourses higher. The London Stock Exchange closes at 1230 GMT, while other markets will remain open.

It’s been a rough year for the Stoxx, with Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine hitting all asset classes. Rampant inflation and the disastrous 45-day reign of former UK prime minister Lizz Truss and her Treasury sidekick Kwasi Kwarteng didn’t help as their car crash of a “mini budget” with unfunded tax cuts hammered bond markets.

The benchmark European index is down 12.34% in the year to date. A raft of interest rate rises and poor business sentiment data last week saw it fall 3.2%. Investors are looking for crumbs of comfort wherever they can find them.

In Asia and the Pacific, eyes are on rising Covid infections and Japanese core consumer inflation hitting a four-decade high.

Unsurprisingly there was little corporate action to provide direction

“Investors remain cautious, weighing up the prospect of rising interest rates against this week’s better-than-expected corporate earnings. To end the week, investors are focusing on a key US inflation measure due at lunchtime, the PCE price index which could provide clues about the Fed’s next move,” said Interactive Investor head of investment Victoria Scholar.

“Oil prices are trading higher after Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak indicated the country could cut oil production in response to the EU’s punitive price cap on Russian oil. Russia could cut its oil output by 5-7% or 500,000-700,000 barrels per day with the potential constraints to supply pushing WTI and Brent crude prices into the green.”

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com