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European stocks provisionally ended down 0.3% on Friday, with major bourses and sectors pointing in opposite directions.

Technology stocks led the losses, down 1.4%, while technology stocks rose 0.6%.

— Sam Meredith

French digital business services group Teleperformance topped stock movements in early afternoon trade, up by 7.7%.

Watches of Switzerland nudged 3.3% higher after the British retailer plunged by 33% on Thursday, when it warned its full-year results would not meet previous guidance.

Shares of Danish shipping giant Maersk meanwhile fell 3.7%, as investors continue to monitor the impact of volatility in the Red Sea on the firm’s operations. On Wednesday, the company announced an operating partnership with Germany’s Hapag Lloyd, which it said would lead to “efficiency gains.”

U.K. retail sales dropped significantly more than expected in December, in a sign that the economy may have entered a shallow recession in the second half of 2023.

The Office for National Statistics said sales volumes fell by 3.2% during the key trading month, after a 1.4% rise in November. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a fall of just 0.5%.

“Today’s release would subtract around 0.15 percentage points from real GDP growth in December, which increases the chances the economy may have ended 2023 in the mildest of mild recessions,” said Alex Kerr, assistant economist at Capital Economics.

The British pound was 0.25% lower against the U.S. dollar and 0.27% lower against the euro, while U.K. bond yields nudged lower.

Read more here.

— Jenni Reid

IG data shows European markets are set to open higher, with the FTSE 100 up 46.6 points to 7,506, Germany’s DAX up 86.5 points to 16,644, and France’s CAC 40 up 43.6 points to 7,444.

— Jenni Reid

Chip stocks in Asia surged Friday following Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company‘s upbeat annual forecast a day earlier on the back of AI-related demand.

TSMC’s shares rose 4.42%, while South Korea’s memory chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix gained 3.21% and 2.42%, respectively.

TSMC forecast 2024 will be “a healthy growth year” due to demand for 3-nanometer and 5-nanometer technologies as well as the AI boom. This comes after a challenging year for chipmakers amid adverse global macroeconomic conditions and an inventory adjustment cycle.

“TSMC is perfectly positioned to benefit from [AI]. There’s an insatiable appetite for low-power, high-performing chips that are going to be able to enable AI on devices,” said Daniel Newman, principal analyst at Futurum Research, on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

– Sheila Chiang

Several sectors – and stocks – in Asia Pacific look “particularly attractive right now,” according to AllianceBernstein.

These stocks are “highly ranked on a quantitative basis and our companies where our Bernstein analysts have a strong positive view,” the Wall Street Bank’s analysts wrote as it named its Asian “top picks for the next six months.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia are among several S&P 500 names to reach 52-week highs on Thursday. AMD traded at all-time high levels not seen since the company’s IPO in September 1972, while Nvidia shares were at levels not seen since January 1999. Other tech and software companies, industrial names and a couple hotel chains also reached fresh heights.

Here are some of the names that reached all-time highs:

Stocks in the broad market index that reached new 52-week lows include Devon Energy, Exxon Mobil and Humana.

— Pia Singh, Christopher Hayes