BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks eked out modest gains on Friday as investors remained hopeful that the United States and China may soon end their year-long trade war.
Investors shrugged off weak data from China showing that industrial profits decreased 2 percent year-on-year in August, in contrast to July's 2.6 percent increase.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 16 points, or 0.28 percent, at 5,636 after climbing 0.7 percent on Thursday.
The European Commission is scheduled to issue euro area economic sentiment survey data later today. Economists expect the economic confidence index to drop marginally to 103.0 in September from 103.1 in August.
Meanwhile preliminary data released earlier in the day showed that France's consumer price inflation slowed marginally in September on energy and food prices.
Household consumption remained flat in August as the increase in manufactured goods spending was offset by a drop in food and energy consumption.
Consumer price inflation slowed to 0.9 percent in September from 1 percent in August. The rate was expected to remain unchanged at 1 percent.
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