LONDON — European stocks were negative on Friday despite a slew of earnings reports that took the U.K.’s FTSE 100 to record highs a day earlier.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 edged lower at 10:35 a.m. in London (5:35 a.m. ET), with major bourses losing earlier momentum and sectors mixed.
The FTSE 100, which reached a record high of 9,594.82 points during Thursday’s trading session before paring some gains by the end of the day, hovered around the flatline.
Italy’s FTSE MIB was 0.1% lower in morning trade, and France’s CAC 40 slid further into the red, down around 0.3%. Germany’s DAX 40 edged into the green.
With earnings season well underway, investors are monitoring a swathe of reports today, including from Saab, ENI, Sanofi, truckmaker Volvo Group, and Porsche.
Swedish defense group Saab was among the big Stoxx 600 movers in morning trade, with shares up 7.8% after it upgraded its 2025 sales guidance in its earnings on Friday, riding the tailwinds of Europe’s defense boom. It is now expecting increases of 20%-24%, versus 16%-20%.
U.K. lender NatWest filed early in the day. Its pre-tax profits reached £2.18 billion ($2.9 billion) in the third quarter, comfortably beating analyst expectations of £1.84 billion.
The London-listed bank’s quarterly results showed net interest income came in at £3.3 billion, in line with consensus forecasts, according to LSEG. The lender — which raised its full-year guidance for 2025 income to £16.3 billion, up from just over £16 billion — saw its shares rise around 2.3% in morning trade.
Friday’s data releases also include the HCOB Eurozone Composite PMI, with individual composite PMI data also expected from the U.K., Germany, and France.
On Thursday, Airbus, Leonardo and Thales announced a merger of their satellite and space businesses to create a “leading European player in space,” in efforts to compete with Elon Musk’s Starlink.
Meanwhile, shares of Gucci-owner Kering and Volvo Cars popped after their earnings reports on Thursday, ending the session 8.7% and 39% higher, respectively.
Kering’s performance reversed on Friday, with shares dipping 2.5%.
Volvo Cars, which is owned by China’s Geely Holding, posted operating income for the July-September period of 6.4 billion Swedish kronor ($680.4 million), well above analysts’ expectations and up from 5.8 billion kronor a year earlier. Thursday’s stock price move was its best day ever, though it was last seen trading almost 1% down.
Elsewhere, the European Union and U.S. announced complementary sanctions packages targeting Russia, in what could be a high point in an otherwise thorny relationship for the two states this year.
Investors will also be watching tariff news coming from Canada, after an ad featuring former U.S. President Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs, aired by the Ontario provincial government, sparked backlash from President Donald Trump. Trump said on Thursday night that he was terminating all trade negotiations with Canada.
South Korea’s Kospi hit a record high on Friday, amid regional gains after the White House said that U.S. President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping were set to hold talks next week.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures were little changed overnight ahead of Friday’s release of the September consumer price index report.
— CNBC’s Hugh Leask, Sam Meredith and Chloe Taylor contributed to this report.