Europe open: Greek news offsets euro strength
A decision by the International Monetary Fund to approve a new conditional bail-out for Greece helped stocks cut early losses.
Nevertheless, trade was largely listless amid a dearth of fresh economic references to trade-off of and continuing strength in the single currency, despite some analysts protestations that it was now 'overbought'.
Weakness in shares of Microsoft and E-Bay following their latest results, which were published after the close of US markets on Thursday, was also weighing on sentiment.
Overnight, the IMF agreed 'in principle' to provide another $1.8bn towards a rescue for the Mediterranean country, conditional on other euro area nations providing debt relief.
As of 0900 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.03% or 0.13 points lower with the Dax up by 0.16 points to 12,447, while the French Cac-40 was off by 0.03% or 1.50 points to 5,197.69.
In parallel, euro/dollar was higher by 0.11% to 1.1643, just off its best levels in two years, even as traders eyed the scope further gains.
However, as some analysts pointed out, past a certain threshhold euro strength might push the European Central Bank's goal of meeting its inflation target further into the future. On the flip-side, currency appreciation entailed a tightening in financial conditions which was equivalent to interest rate hikes.
Commenting on the situation, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, said: "This rather presents the ECB with a problem in meeting its inflation target and it’s hard to see what they can do about it, given the weakness of the US dollar, and they aren’t likely to get any help from the Federal Reserve next week, given their similar concerns about the inflation outlook in the US, which suggests that it probably won’t be long before we see a move to 1.2000 in short order, and levels last seen at the end of 2014."
From a technical standpoint, Hewson saw room for further strength in the euro up to 1.18 in its cross versus the greenback.
No first-tier economic indicators were slated for release on Friday.
Italy's Benetton family was vying with motorbike manufacturers and buyout to take over one of the country's most iconic manufacturers, Ducati, Reuters reported.
French luxury goods outfit Hermes said it expected foreign exchange tailwinds to help it keep its operating margins near the record 33.9% level reached in the first half of 2016.
In parallel, Faurecia lifted its 2017 outlook for earnings after delivering a bumper 20% increase for operating profits at the half-year stage.