European stocks follow global markets lower as interest rate outlook weighs on sentiment

British utility company National Grid flipped from being the Stoxx 600’s worst performer on Thursday to its best during intraday trading on Friday.

The power line operator was up 7% in late morning trade, following its full-year results and announcement that it plans to raise £7 billion ($8.9 billion) from shareholders to fund the clean energy transition.

Shares of Spanish utilities firm Acciona meanwhile slumped 9%, after it issued a warning on its 2024 earnings outlook in a first-quarter trading statement. Analysts at J.P. Morgan called the updated “disappointing,” according to Reuters.

— Jenni Reid

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, will meet virtually on June 2 to determine the next steps of their crude production policy, the OPEC Secretariat said Friday.

OPEC countries will hold a separate videoconference meeting that same day.

OPEC+ was previously set to meet on June 1 in Vienna. Coalition delegates, who could only speak anonymously because of the sensitivity of group discussions, had signaled to CNBC growing uncertainty in recent days over whether the reunion would not be moved to a virtual format.

The influential oil producers’ alliance is currently slated to continue cutting 2 million barrels per day of crude output until the end of this year, under its formal policy. Separately, a subset of OPEC+ nations including heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Russia, announced voluntary reductions: one set comprising 1.66 million barrels per day, stretching until the end of the year; and a second round of cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day lasting until the end of the second quarter.

Market participants are closely watching whether these second-quarter voluntary cuts will be extended, while supply security concerns linger amid ongoing conflict in the oil-rich Middle East.

The Ice Brent futures contract with July expiry was trading down 4 cents per barrel to $81.32 per barrel at 09:19 a.m. London time, with the front-month July Nymex WTI contract lower by 9 cents per barrel at $76.78 per barrel.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Europe’s stock markets opened lower on Friday, with the regional Stoxx 600 index down 0.74% in early deals.

Germany’s DAX fell 0.9%, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 and France’s CAC 40 were down by 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively.

— Jenni Reid

U.K. retail sales volumes dropped 2.3% in April as wet weather deterred shoppers, the Office for National Statistics said Friday.

Economists polled by Reuters expected a smaller fall of 0.4%.

“Sales volumes fell across most sectors, with clothing retailers, sports equipment, games and toys stores, and furniture stores doing badly as poor weather reduced footfall,” the ONS said.

March’s figure was revised from flat to a 0.2% decline.

— Jenni Reid

European stocks are set to open in the red on Friday as they remain on track for a losing week.

The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was last seen opening 0.82% lower at 8,277 points, according to IG data. France’s CAC 40 was seen down 0.38% at 8,069, with Germany’s DAX down 0.5% at 18,598.

— Jenni Reid

Nvidia delivered once again, with its results proving it’s showing no signs of slowing down.

The chipmaker’s shares jumped in extended trading but given the “blowout earnings,” Nancy Tengler of Laffer Tengler Investments said she expected to see a higher move.

“I think a lot of that has been priced in and now you’ll see it trickle out as it has been into other players in in this space,” the chief investment officer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.

“We think there’s another way to play this,” she said.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Coinbase advanced 5% in extended trading after the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a rule change that would pave the way for ETFs that buy and hold ether. Robinhood gained 2%.

While both companies offer cryptocurrency trading, Coinbase could stand to benefit more from the introduction of ether ETFs as it offers a slew of other crypto services, including custody and staking, as well as a larger selection of tradeable assets. Coinbase also operates a blockchain, called Base, that’s built on the Ethereum network.

The price of ether rose just 2% Thursday evening. Earlier in the week it rallied more than 20% over two days on investor optimism around the SEC’s decision, and it’s now on pace for its best week in more than a year.

Read more about how ether ETFs could benefit Coinbase on CNBC Pro.

— Tanaya Macheel, Jesse Pound

Traders are lowering their expectations — again — for how many times the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates this year, and moving the outlook for the first cut still later.

A day after minutes from the last Fed meeting affirmed that policymakers are worried over inflation and not in a hurry to cut, traders in the fed funds futures market reduced their outlook to just one reduction in 2024. The probability of just a single cut jumped to nearly 58%, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. Earlier this week the market was looking for two reductions.

At the same time, the first move lower is not expected to happen until at least September and more likely November. At the beginning of the year, traders were pricing in at least six cuts starting in March. The probability for a September cut fell to 51% Thursday afternoon.

—Jeff Cox

As the first-quarter earnings season winds down, investors will shift more of their attention to geopolitical concerns in the next few months before the next round of earnings, according to SimCorp.

“The Fed has been pretty clear that they’re not going to cut rates, so you don’t have this, ‘Will they or won’t they’ [scenario] keeping everybody on edge. We are going to start to see a turn to some of this geopolitical stuff, whether it’s its elections or the two ongoing wars,” said Melissa Brown, managing director of applied research.

While events such as the U.S. and UK elections don’t necessarily result in economic impacts, they do increase uncertainty, Brown noted.

“People may go from saying ‘I’m just going to buy now,’ to, ‘Look, I’m gonna wait and see the outcome of this before I decide to commit more money to market,'” Brown said.

— Hakyung Kim