Peter Nurse 

Investing.com: European stock markets will open higher on Friday as investors assess the impact of persistent inflation and aggressive monetary tightening on global economic growth.

The contract in Germany was trading 1% higher at 2AM ET (0600 GMT), while the French contract rose 1%, and that in England rose 0.9%.

European equity markets have had a wild week. This was due to Wall Street’s lead. Investors reacted earlier this week to the possibility that U.S. headline consumer prices might have reached a peak, but also the warning that the Federal Reserve chief could warn that economic pain can still exist if it is not controlled.

“So a soft landing is, is really just getting back to 2% inflation while keeping the labor market strong. And it’s quite challenging to accomplish that right now,” Powell said Thursday in an interview.

The release came after earlier data showed that the U.S. experienced an 8.3% increase in April over the previous year, which was slower than the 8.5% pace a month prior.

Potential weakness in the U.S. economy, the world’s economic driver, adds to the deteriorating global picture, as the war in Ukraine threatens stagflation in Europe and ongoing COVID lockdowns in China weigh on growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

Both the April inflation data and March numbers from Eurozone will be carefully examined by investors on Friday, looking for signs that prices are falling in Europe.  

Deutsche Telekom (ETR 🙂 in corporate will be the focal point Friday following strong quarterly numbers from the telecoms giant. These figures lifted its full-year outlook thanks to its U.S. subsidiary, T-Mobile and its European expansion.

Norwegian Air (OL;) suffered a setback, adding that higher fuel costs could partially offset positive summer-season bookings. 

While oil prices increased Friday, it still seemed likely that they would register their first weekly drop in three weeks. This was despite concerns over global weakness outweighing the possibility of a ban by the European Union on tightening Russian oil supply.

Futures were trading 1.3% higher at $107.55 per barrel by 2:05 PM ET. They are expected to decline around 2% over the week. However, contract prices rose 1.6% to $109.13 and will drop almost 3% next week.

Also, the price of gold rose 0.1% at $1,826.36/oz while it traded 0.2% lower at 1.0402.