DAX Inches Higher After Thursday's Selloff

(RTTNews) - German stocks were moving higher on Friday after steep losses the previous day on trade and growth worries.

Investors drew some comfort from a late Wall Street recovery overnight, helped by hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve could pause its interest-rate hikes.

The focus remained on a key U.S jobs report due tonight, with economists expecting employment to increase by 205,000 jobs in November after an increase of 250,000 jobs in October. The jobless rate is expected to hold at 3.7 percent.

The benchmark DAX was up 50 points or 0.47 percent at 10,861 in opening deals after plunging as much as 3.5 percent the previous day to enter bear market territory.

Enterprise software vendor SAP rallied 2 percent after it announced free access for SAP partners to SAP Cloud Platform.

Healthcare firm Fresenius plunged more than 10 percent after saying its ambitious Group targets for 2020 would not be met. Shares of Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA slumped 6 percent.

In economic releases, Germany's industrial production decreased for the first time in three months in October, defying expectations for a modest increase, preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed.

Industrial production dropped 0.5 percent from September, when they grew 0.1 percent. Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent increase.