This is CNBC’s live blog covering European markets.
European markets opened in mixed territory on Friday, as corporate earnings, monetary policy and key U.S. jobs data remained in focus.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was little changed shortly after the opening bell, with major bourses mostly trading flat. London’s FTSE 100 was down 0.1% during early morning deals.
Stocks in Europe closed at a record high on Thursday, erasing losses earlier this week when the beginnings of a possible U.S.-China trade war sent jitters through global markets.
The fresh highs came after a flurry of company earnings report and an interest rate cut from the Bank of England. The central bank on Thursday cut its key rate by 25 basis points and signaled more cuts were on the horizon in 2025. However, it also halved its growth projection for Britain, slashing its 2025 growth forecast from 1.5% to 0.75%.
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey told CNBC on Thursday that even if the U.K. manages to avoid U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs regime, a trade war between the U.S. and another major economy “will have an effect” on Britain.
Friday will see the release of January U.S. jobs data, which is scheduled for publication at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists polled by Dow Jones are anticipating nonfarm payrolls growth to have cooled to 169,000 new jobs in January, down from the 256,000 jobs added in December. The Dow Jones survey also found economists are expecting America’s unemployment rate to hold steady at 4.1%.
In Europe, data releases will include French and German import and export data, house price data from the U.K., and an industrial production print from Spain.
Corporate earnings releases will resume in Europe on Friday, with a handful of companies including Danske Bank, Ashmore Group and Kongsberg slated to update investors on their finances.
Overnight in Asia, stocks were mixed as investors digested India’s first interest rate cut in almost five years and economic data out of Japan.
On Wall Street, stock futures were little changed ahead of the release of the United States’ January jobs report.
— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim contributed to this report.
Porsche shares fall
A worker checks the quality of the all-electric Porsche Macan at the Porsche assembly plant on May 6, 2024, in Leipzig, Germany.
Shares of luxury carmaker Porsche were down 3.8% at 9:11 a.m. London time, after updates from Porsche SE — the firm’s holding company — and the carmaker itself.
Porsche AG, the carmaker, said Thursday it anticipated profit margins of 10% to 12% in 2025, below its medium-term target of 17% to 19%, with restructuring costs expected to amount to 800 million euros ($831.6 million).
Porsche has faced various challenges in recent years, including supply shortages, wavering demand in China and launching vehicles in tough economic conditions.
“We see this as [Porsche’s] last shot to prove they can turn around this business before losing more trust of long-term shareholders,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note to clients on Friday.
Separately on Thursday, Porsche SE said it expects writedowns on its Porsche holding to fall in the range of 2.5 billion euros to 3.5 billion euros this year. It had previously expected an impairment of 1 billion to 2 billion euros.
— Chloe Taylor
BPER shares drop after $4.5 billion takeover bid for Banca Popolare di Sondrio
Milan-listed shares of BPER Banca lost 4.73% by 8:48 a.m. London time, shortly after market open, after the lender joined the wave of consolidation attempts engulfing its native Italy with a $4.3 billion euro ($4.47 billion) offer for Banca Popolare di Sondrio (BPSO).
BPSO stock was up 6.85%.
Under the bid terms, BPER said it will issue 29 ordinary shares for every 20 of Lombardy-based BPSO, which it assessed would imply a 6.6% premium over Thursday’s prices.
BPER is aiming to acquire at least 35% plus one share of BPSO, which would make it the largest single shareholder of its domestic peer — above the 19.7% of Italian insurer Unipol, which also holds the largest single stake of BPER at 19.8%.
— Ruxandra Iordache
Banco Sabadell unveils 1 billion-euro share buyback as it fends off BBVA bid
Spain’s fourth-largest lender Banco Sabadell on Friday posted a quarterly profit beat and increased shareholder returns, as its CEO slammed the odds of a hostile takeover from domestic peer BBVA (Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria).
Amid an all-time high annual contribution from British unit TSB, Sabadell reported fourth-quarter net profit of 532 million euros ($552 million), up 5.7% quarter-on-quarter and beating analyst expectations of near 436 million euros, in a Reuters-cited poll.
Annual net profit jumped 37.1% year-on-year to 1.83 billion euros in 2024, with return on tangible equity — a measure of profitability — hitting 14.9% over the full-year stretch, compared with 11.5% in 2023.
The bank said it would hike its shareholder returns to 3.3 billion euros, compared with a previous 2.9 billion-euro estimate, and announced a 1 billion-euro share buyback.
It remains steadfastly opposed to last spring’s merger offer from BBVA, which the Spanish government has also questioned on competition grounds, Sabadell CEO César González-Bueno told CNBC Friday.
“We are Spain’s fourth largest bank, but we are key for the SME [small and medium-sized enterprise] business. If we disappeared that competition would suffer. And that is creating this phenomenal execution risk because it is the result of a social reaction to something that Spain does not want. And of course, as I said in the beginning, on top of that, they are not paying the price,” he said on “Squawk Box Europe.”
Expressing doubts that the deal would progress in the absence of an improved offer, he stressed: “With everything that it’s on the table, the answer is a very, very clear ‘No.'”
— Ruxandra Iordache
Active ETFs surge in popularity
Investors have piled into actively managed funds at a much faster pace relative to their passive peers, with their assets under management surpassing $1 trillion for the first time in 2024, data from Morningstar showed.
Here are the top 10 ETFs by AUM as of early February:
— Lee Ying Shan
UK house prices hit record high, Halifax says
Houses in South London in February 2025.
The average house price in Britain rose 0.7% month on month in January, lender Halifax said on Friday, bringing it to £299,138 ($372, 013) — a new record high. On an annual basis, average house prices were up 3%, according to Halifax’s House Price Index.
The January move followed a monthly price decline of 0.2% in December.
Property prices in London rose 2.8% year on year to reach an average £548,288 in January.
— Chloe Taylor
Here are the opening calls
London’s FTSE 100 is expected to open 24 points lower at 8,712 points, according to IG data. The German Dax index is slated to open 17 points lower at 21,896, the data suggests, while the French CAC 40 is expected to shed 22 points to 8,000 at the market open.
— Chloe Taylor
