Sep 09, 2022 02:02AM ET
By: AnalysisWatch
European stock markets are expected to open with modest gains on Friday, following a prolonged recovery on Wall Street and ahead of a key EU meeting to discuss plans to tackle the region's energy crisis.
At 02:00 GMT, the DAX futures contract in Germany was trading 0.2% higher, the CAC 40 futures contract in France was up 0.4%, and the FTSE 100 futures contract in the UK was up 0.4%.
Wall Street's major indices posted gains on Thursday, with the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closing nearly 200 points, or 0.6%, higher.
The positive finish helped the tone in Europe on Friday, but gains are likely to be only tentative ahead of a meeting of European Union energy ministers, who will discuss the 27-member bloc's response to the energy crisis, including a possible agreement to impose a price cap on gas imported from Russia.
Sharply rising gas prices threaten to force some European countries that rely heavily on supplies from Russia to introduce rationing as winter approaches, which could lead to a halt in industrial production and a recession in the region.
New British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Thursday announced plans for a two-year cap on consumer energy bills and support for energy companies, which could cost Britain about 150 billion pounds.
It came a day after the European Central Bank raised interest rates by an unprecedented 75 basis points on Thursday and pointed to further increases in the coming months to tame runaway inflation.
In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank's hawkish stance on Thursday, saying decisive action was needed to fight inflation.
Europe's economic calendar is mostly empty on Friday, but investors could focus on July industrial production data in France and Spain, which could give a clue as to how the region's industrial base is coping with a sharp rise in energy prices.