BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - French stocks turned in a mixed performance on Friday with investors making cautious moves due to trade tensions following China's warning that it would retaliate against new EU trade measures that could potentially target Chinese companies and products.
Easing concerns about interest rates and AI spending aided sentiment.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's comments defending the financial health of AI computing supplier CoreWeave Inc. helped lift tech stocks.
Brent crude front-month futures dropped to $104.91 a barrel before recovering to $105.47, still down nearly 0.5% from previous close.
The benchmark CAC 40, which edged down to 4,916.98 in early trades, was up 23.32 points or 0.28% at 7,958.02 nearly a quarter past noon.
Renault rallied 3.75%. EssilorLuxottica gained 3.1%, while Thales, Stellantis and Pernod Ricard moved up 2.9%, 2.7% and 2.5%, respectively.
Airbus advanced 1.7%. The aerospace company announced that it has secured an order for 75 A320neo Family aircraft from Aviation Capital Group.
Capgemini, Dassault Systemes, Publicis Groupe, Bouygues, Accor, BNP Paribas, ArcelorMittal, Legrand, Euronext and Hermes International gained 0.5%-1.3%.
Schneider Electric, TotalEnergies, Eurofins Scientific, Sanofi, LVMH and L'Oreal shed 0.5%-0.9%. STMicroelectronics edged down marginally.
In economic news, The euro area trade balance showed a shortfall of EUR 16.1 billion in August, compared with a surplus of EUR 10.7 billion posted in July. In the same period last year, the deficit was EUR 1.7 billion.
Exports of goods increased 9.9% from a year ago, which was faster than the 8.8% rise in July. At the same time, growth in imports accelerated sharply to 16.7% from 9.1%.
Eurozone inflation rose to 3.8% in September, marking the highest since September 2023, from 3.2% in August. The rate matched the flash estimate published on October 2.
Excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, core inflation rose slightly to 2.5%, as estimated, from 2.4% in the previous month.
Month-on-month, the harmonized index of consumer prices gained 0.6%, matching the initial estimate.
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