European Stock Futures Largely Higher; PMI Numbers Due By Investing.com – Investing.com

European Stock Futures Largely Higher; PMI Numbers Due By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Peter Nurse 



Investing.com - European stock markets are seen opening largely higher Friday, continuing the strong gains from the previous session as optimism over the region’s outlook strengthens as it gradually gets to grips with the Covid-19 pandemic. 



the  2:05 AM ET (0705 GMT), the contract in Germany traded 0.2% higher, the contract in the U.K. rose 0.1%, while in France dropped 0.2%. 



The major European indices closed sharply higher Thursday--with the climbing 1.7%, the gaining 1.3% and the 1%--as investor appetite for riskier assets returned.



Credit Suisse (SIX:) upgraded its investment stance on continental European equities to ‘overweight’ on Thursday, citing a catch-up in economic recovery, valuations and excess liquidity.



Helping the region’s vaccination program, the U.K. medicine regulator approved new storage conditions for the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine, saying it can now be stored for 31 days, up from 5, at regular fridge temperature after being thawed. More worryingly, cases of a new variant of Covid-19 first identified in India doubled in the U.K. for the second week in a row.



Additionally, the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe said the vaccines being used on the