Peter Nurse 

Investing.com. European stock market weakness Friday was due to poor regional economic data before the U.S. release of December employment numbers. 

At 3:40 AM ET (0840 GMT), the in Germany traded 0.6% lower, the in France dropped 0.3% and the U.K.’s fell 0.2%. 

fell 0.2% on the month in November, data from the Eurozone’s largest economy showed Friday, a sharp decrease from October’s 2.4% gain.

“Unfortunately, this is where the rebound of German industry stops for the time being,” said Carsten Brzeski, an analyst at ING. “The fourth wave of the pandemic and Omicron should send industrial activity back into hibernation.”

France was hit with the same weakness. The month ended November had fallen 0.4%, 0.9% in October.

Even so, the losses Friday were minimal. Many investors are keeping their heads down ahead of Friday’s release of U.S. data. 

The payrolls are expected to have risen by 400,000 in December, almost doubling November’s disappointing 210,000 rise, with the seen falling to 4.1% from 4.2%. 

However, Wednesday’s private payrolls report, which is often used as a guide to the government’s, showed companies added 807,000 jobs last month, more than twice the number expected, suggesting potential upside to the official number.

STMicroelectronics’ (PA) stock rose 3.7% in corporate news after it said that fourth quarter revenue was slightly more than what the company had forecasted. The announcement came amid a microchip shortage worldwide.

Royal Dutch Shell stock (LON:), fell 0.1%, despite the fact that the energy giant stated it would channel $5.5 Billion in proceeds from its Permian assets sale into a quick stock buyback.

The rise in oil prices Friday was largely due to concerns about global supply. This is mainly because of tensions in Kazakhstan (a member of the OPEC+ alliance) which slowly adds oil to the market.

TCO, Kazakhstan’s biggest oil producer and a joint venture led by Chevron (NYSE: ) confirmed Friday that the firm had made adjustments to output in protests and unrest, but did not provide any further information on the extent of the change. Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan’s CSTO alliance said the order was largely back in place after troops arrived from Russia.

Futures were trading 0.3% higher at $79.72 per barrel by 3:40 am ET. The contract was up 0.3% to $82.25. The first week saw gains in both contracts of over 6%, while the contract rose 0.3% to $82.25.

Additionally, it fell 0.1% to $1787.80/oz. However, it traded 0.2% lower at 1.1309.