Europe close: Stocks get late boost from jobs data in the States
European stocks ended the session on a mixed note, but off their worst levels of the day despite a late boost from better-than-expected US jobs data for the month of June.
US non-farm payrolls increased by 222,000 last month, according to the US Department of Labor, exceeding forecasts for an increase of 177,000.
Friday's data came alongside a combined 47,000 positive revision to to figures for the previous two months.
At the closing bell, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was lower by 0.07% or 0.25 points to 380.18, while the Dax was up 0.06% or 7.43 points to 12,388.68 and the Cac-40 was off by 0.14% or 7.24 points to 5,145.16.
Euro/dollar was drifting lower by 0.14% to 1.1406, while the yield on the 10-year German bund was down by one basis point at 0.57%.
In parallel, front month Brent crude futures were again under pressure, retreating 3.1% to $46.61 a barrel on the ICE.
That dragged the Stoxx 600 Oil&Gas sector gauge down by 1.31% to 283.58. However, the worst performing area of the market was Media, with negative comments out of analysts at Exane sending that sector sub-index lower by 1.45%.
Helping to offset those losses, gains in Centrica on rumours of possible takeover interest saw Utilities as a group climb by 0.61%.
In economic news, German industrial production jumped by 1.2% month-on-month in May, surpassing forecasts for a rise of 0.2%.
That prompted Claus Vistesen at Capital Economics to tell clients: "In short, almost no matter happened in June, these data suggest that the German economy fired on all cylinders in the first six months of the year, a story supported by the significant upward revision to the Q1 numbers."
During that same month, French industrial production rose by 1.9% on the month (consensus: 0.6%), pushing the year-on-year rate of growth from 0.1% to 3.2%.
In other corporate news, shares in budget carrier Easyjet gained altitude on the heels of an upgrade out of Credit Suisse from 'neutral' to 'outperform'.
Carrefour on the other hand was on the backfoot as analysts questioned the retailer's decision to cut prices in order to protect market share.