Peter Nurse 

Investing.com. European stock markets traded in mixed conditions Friday. Investors are closely watching new negotiations that aim to end war in Ukraine. The spat between Moscow, European nations about the payment of Russian Gas and important Eurozone inflation data. 

By 3:40 AM ET (0740 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.1% higher, the U.K.’s climbed 0.1%, while the in France fell 0.1%.

European equities are trying to rebound Friday after the region’s stock markets suffered their biggest quarterly loss since the start of 2020, with the Russian-Ukrainian war and the associated surge in commodity prices raising concerns of a recession.

However, peace talks are scheduled to be resumed by video conference Friday. Previous negotiations have not yielded much and Volodymyr Zelensky (Ukraine President) warned Thursday that “battles” were ahead in Donbas as well as the besieged port city of Mariupol.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Friday that Moscow will continue to supply gas to Europe. This eases fears that Putin would stop supplies to Western countries unless they pay in rubles.

Russia provides about one-third of Europe’s natural gas. Therefore, removing Russia from the equation would lead to a serious energy crisis. 

Corporate news: Sodexo (PA) stock dropped 4.6% following a cut by the French caterer and food service group to its guidance for full year revenue growth. This was due to the Ukrainian conflict and the closing of COVID-19 testing centres in the United Kingdom.

Sanofi (PA) stock rose 0.8% on the back of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi’s announcement that it will list its drug components business in May following approval by France’s stock market regulator.

The European economic data slate includes numbers for Germany, the region’s manufacturing hub, following on from the in China falling to 48.1, the steepest rate of contraction since February 2020.

The March session will see the most attention, with the expected 6.6% increase in monthly sales and U.S. March following shortly.

Petroleum prices declined Friday after the order to massively release crude oil strategic reserves in an attempt to stem the soaring price of oil.

Starting in May, the U.S. will release 1 million barrels per hour for 6 months. It would be the most significant release of U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve ever. 

International Energy Agency members will meet Friday night to discuss their plans to join the organization, which follows the delivery of 60 million barrels at the beginning March.

At 3:40 am ET futures had traded 1.3% lower at $98.98/barrel while contracts fell 1.1%, to $103.61. Each benchmark was headed towards a weekly loss around 13%.

Also, the price of gold fell by 1% to $1929.90/oz while it traded 0.1% higher at 1.1051.