Peter Nurse 

European stock markets rose Friday at Investing.com, as investors continued to monitor persistent inflation, tightening monetary policy, and their impact on economic growth.

By 4:20 AM ET (0820 GMT), the in Germany traded 1.2% higher, the in France rose 1.3%, and the U.K.’s climbed 1.3%.

European equity shares edged up Friday as investors look for bargains after stocks were battered by fears that soaring inflation will lead to a sharp decline in growth.

The main European indexes still have a negative streak of five weeks, their longest since February. 

Investors are continuing to monitor the geopolitical fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Russian forces continued to attack Mariupol’s Azovstal plant with artillery and airstrikes. 

NATO officials will join NATO foreign ministers over the weekend to discuss possible bids by Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance. 

Moscow warned Finland that it would face retaliation if they do not follow through with their plans to join NATO. 

Deutsche Telekom (ETR.) stock gained 0.3% following strong quarterly numbers from the telecommunications giant. The company’s full-year outlook was lifted by T-Mobile in the USA and its European expansion.

However, Norwegian Air Shuttle stock (OL:) declined 1% following a loss in the quarter. The decline was due to the rising fuel cost and the negative effects of higher summer bookings. 

Inflation data for April from and were at high levels with the reaching 4.8% (up from 4.5% last month) while the was 8.3%, slightly lower than March’s 8.4%.

The Eurozone’s March numbers will be released later in this session and are likely to indicate a slowdown.  

Although oil prices were up Friday, they still appeared to be on track for their first weekly decline in three weeks. Concerns about a weakening global demand outweighed any possibility of an EU ban on Russian tightening supplies.

Futures were trading 0.6% higher at $106.78 per barrel by 4:20 am ET. They are expected to decline around 2% over the week. The contract rose 0.7%, to $108.22. This week’s drop is almost 3%.

Additionally, it fell 0.2% to $1.822.26/oz. However, it traded 0.3% lower at 1.0408.