By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets extended gains on
Friday as investors digested the latest round of earnings reports
and waited for the highly anticipated U.S. nonfarm-payrolls report
due in the afternoon.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 0.2% to 323.50, building on
gains from Thursday, when the benchmark posted its biggest advance
since Dec. 19.
The rally on Thursday came after the European Central Bank left
its key lending rate at a record low of 0.25%, although ECB
President Mario Draghi reiterated a pledge to take further easing
action if needed.
Among notable movers in Friday's action, shares of Air
France-KLM SA gained 3.2% after the airline said passenger traffic
rose 3.8% in January.
Shares of ArcelorMittal rose 2.8% after the French steelmaker
said its loss narrowed in the fourth quarter, helped by cost saving
and a rise in steel and iron-ore shipments. Peer firm ThyssenKrupp
AG gained 0.8%.
On a more downbeat note, shares of Skanska AB dropped 3.1% after
the Swedish construction firm reported fourth-quarter profit and
revenue below analyst expectations.
Later in the day, attention turns to the U.S., where the closely
watched nonfarm-payrolls report and unemployment rate are out at
1:30 p.m. London time, or 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Economists polled
by MarketWatch expect 190,000 jobs were added to the economy in
January and the joblessness level dropped to 6.6% from 6.7%.
"It is the most important data not only for the U.S. equity
markets, but also for global markets, and this month in particular
it has even greater prominence," said Naeem Aslam, chief market
analyst at Ava Trade, said in a note.
"We think that if the number falls below the 120,000, then we
could potentially say that tapering is conceivably making its
impact on growth. The equity market may take this as a good news,
and we could see a rally for the equity market, because the
likelihood of further tapering may go lower," he added.
The Federal Reserve started tapering its asset-purchase program
in December and made further cuts to it in January, leaving the
monthly purchases at $65 billion.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street ahead
of the data.
In Europe, Germany's DAX 30 index was up 0.1% to 9,261.48 and
the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 0.1% to 6,564.38. France's CAC 40
index fell 0.1% to 4,185.03.
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