European Shares Rebound Ahead Of US Jobs Report

(RTTNews) - European stocks bounced back on Friday after sharp losses the previous day following the arrest of chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei.

Investors drew some comfort from a firm dollar and 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.

After Federal Reserve officials signaled a more flexible approach to policy in 2019, speculation is rife that the U.S. central bank is now equipped to pause the interest rate hike agenda after December.

Investors also kept an eye on oil price movements as OPEC ministers meet for a third day in Vienna later today to try to hammer out an agreement on output cuts.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was up 1.3 percent at 347.86 in opening deals after tumbling 3.1 percent in the previous session.

The German DAX was moving up 0.8 percent, France's CAC 40 index was climbing 1.4 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was up 1.5 percent.

German enterprise software vendor SAP rallied 2.1 percent after it announced free access for SAP partners to SAP Cloud Platform.

Healthcare firm Fresenius plunged more than 12 percent after saying its ambitious Group targets for 2020 would not be met.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV was slightly higher on a Wall Street Journal report that it plans to open a new vehicle factory in Detroit.

French automaker Renault was rising 0.3 percent. The Nikkei business daily reported that Tokyo prosecutors plan to indict former Nissan Motor Chairman Carlos Ghosn on December 10 for financial misconduct.

Nokia Oyj climbed 4.6 percent on expectations that it could benefit from Huawei's challenges.

British real estate investment trust Land Securities Group jumped 3 percent. The company has expanded its presence in Southwark with the acquisition of a 1.6 acre site in Lavington Street, SE1 for 87.1 million pounds.

Housebuilder Berkeley Group Holdings rose nearly 3 percent after reporting its first-half earnings.

Associated British Foods tumbled 2.5 percent. The food processing and retailing company has warned of challenging trading at Primark in the run-up to Christmas.

In economic releases, German industrial production dropped 0.5 percent from September, when they grew 0.1 percent, official data showed. Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent increase.

The U.K. house price index rose 0.3 percent year-on-year in the three months to November, after a 1.5 percent increase in the three months to October, figures from the Lloyds Banking Group subsidiary Halifax showed. Economists had expected 1 percent growth.