LONDON — European stocks opened in positive territory on Friday amid a slew of earnings reports.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.1% higher at 8:43 a.m. in London (3:43 a.m. ET), though sectors and bourses were mixed.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 and Italy’s FTSE MIB were around 0.1% higher in the first hour of trade. Germany’s DAX 40 straddled the flatline while France’s CAC 40 slid into the red, down around 0.1%.
With earnings season well underway, investors will be monitoring a swathe of reports today, including from Saab, ENI, Sanofi, truckmaker Volvo Group, and Porsche.
Swedish defense group Saab was among the big Stoxx 600 movers in morning trade, with shares up 4.5% after it upgraded its 2025 sales guidance in its earnings on Friday, riding the tailwinds of Europe’s defense boom. It is now expecting increases of 20%-24%, versus 16%-20%.
U.K. lender NatWest filed early in the day. Its pre-tax profits reached £2.18 billion ($2.9 billion) in the third quarter, comfortably beating analyst expectations of £1.84 billion.
The London-listed bank’s quarterly results showed net interest income came in at £3.3 billion, in line with consensus forecasts, according to LSEG. The lender — which raised its full-year guidance for 2025 income to £16.3 billion, up from just over £16 billion — saw its shares rise around 3.4% on the news.
Friday’s data releases also include the HCOB Eurozone Composite PMI, with individual composite PMI data also expected from the U.K., Germany, and France.
On Thursday, Airbus, Leonardo and Thales announced a merger of their satellite and space businesses to create a “leading European player in space,” in efforts to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Meanwhile, shares of Gucci-owner Kering and Volvo Cars popped after their earnings reports on Thursday, ending the session 8.7% and 39% higher, respectively.
Volvo Cars, which is owned by China’s Geely Holding, posted operating income for the July-September period of 6.4 billion Swedish kronor ($680.4 million), well above analysts’ expectations and up from 5.8 billion kronor a year earlier. Thursday’s stock price move was its best day ever.
Elsewhere, the European Union and U.S. announced complementary sanctions packages targeting Russia, in what could be a high point in an otherwise thorny relationship for the two states this year.
Investors will also be watching tariff news coming from Canada, after an ad featuring former U.S. President Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs, aired by the Ontario provincial government, sparked backlash from President Donald Trump. Trump said on Thursday night that he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada.
South Korea’s Kospi hit a record high on Friday, amid regional gains after the White House said that U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping were set to hold talks next week.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures were little changed overnight ahead of Friday’s release of the September consumer price index report.
— CNBC’s Hugh Leask, Sam Meredith and Chloe Taylor contributed to this report.