Peter Nurse 

Investing.com: European stock markets trade in mixed fashion on Friday. This is despite the fact that the Ukraine conflict continues and the energy price remain high. 

By 5:10 AM ET (0910 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.1% higher, the in France traded flat, while the U.K.’s dropped 0.2%.

According to United Nations statistics, thousands have been killed in the conflict in Ukraine since the Russian invasion of February 24th.

After talks held in Brussels, Western leaders condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine as barbaric. The U.K. also imposed more sanctions on Russia.

U.S. President called for Russia’s removal from the G-20 group of major economies ahead of traveling to a town near the Polish-Ukrainian border later Friday, in a bid to signal Western unity.

Corporate news: Trelleborg stock (ST:), soared more than 20% after the Swedish company announced that it would sell its tire unit to Yokohama Rubber for $2.3 billion.

Anglo American The LON stock gained 0.2% following the announcement by the mining giant Thungela Resources that it would be selling its remaining shares in Thungela Resources. This completes its exit from South African coal.

Volkswagen (DE) stock plunged 0.7% as the German car company announced that it would delay the release of its ID.5 electric vehicle by one month, to the first week in May due to problems with the Ukrainian supply of wires.

Unexpectedly, British registered a 7.0% annual growth in February, with 0.3% of the monthly decline due to soaring fuel prices.

The fell to 90.8 in March, from a revised 98.5 last month, as the war in Ukraine and surging energy prices weigh on confidence in the Eurozone’s largest economy.

As leaders from the main European countries try to reduce their dependence on Russia, oil prices fell Friday as the European Union announced a partnership to provide Europe with additional U.S. Liquid.

The United States was also reported to be in discussions with its allies about a potential further coordinated release from oil storage.

The futures fell 2.3% to $109.75/barrel at 5:10 am ET. While the contract dropped 2.1% (to $116.52) Brent was around 10% higher than WTI and WTI was up 7%. Both futures were on track for their first weekly gains within three weeks.

The price fell 0.3% to $1955.85/oz. However, it was 0.1% more at 1.1002.