European stocks mixed ahead of German Ifo data; Dax up 0.13%

Investing.com - European stocks were mixed on Friday, as investors remained cautious ahead of the release of German business climate data, although Thursday's relatively upbeat reports from the euro zone continued to support.

During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 inched 0.05% lower, France’s CAC 40 eased up 0.04%, while Germany’s DAX 30 added 0.13%.

Stocks gained ground on Thursday after data showed that Germany’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 48.8 in January from 46.0 in December, still below the 50 level that separates contraction from expansion, while the euro zone manufacturing PMI rose to a 10-month high of 47.5 in January from a final reading of 46.1 in December.

Sentiment also found support after the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance last week fell to the lowest level since January 2008.

Financial stocks were mixed, as shares in French lenders BNP Paribas and Societe Generale added 0.11% and 0.06%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank fell 0.17% and 0.24% respectively.

Bloomberg reported earlier that one of Deutsche Bank's best-paid traders lost about EUR40 million in bonuses after he was fired for trying to rig interest rates.

Elsewhere, Volkswagen rose 0.21% after saying it plans to shift the production of its best-selling Golf hatchback for the Americas market to Mexico.

EADS slipped lower on the other hand, down 0.27%, after announcing that Daimler AG’s Supervisory Board Chairman Manfred Bischoff and former head of BDI industry group, Hans- Peter Keitel, will join the company's management.

In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 slipped 0.15%, weighed by losses in mining stocks.

Mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton declined 0.85% and 0.90%, while rival Evraz plummeted 1.71%.

Meanwhile, financial stocks were mixed, as shares in Barclays dipped 0.02% and Lloyds Banking slid 0.39%, while HSBC Holdings and the Royal Bank of Scotland edged up 0.09% and 0.25% respectively.

In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a moderately higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.04% rise, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.03% gain, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.15% increase.

Later in the day, the Ifo Institute was to publish a report on German business climate, while the U.S. was to release government data on new homes sales.