European Stock Futures Lower; BNP Paribas Launches Stock Buyback By Investing.com – Investing.com

European Stock Futures Lower; BNP Paribas Launches Stock Buyback By Investing.com – Investing.com

© Reuters.

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com - European stock markets are expected to weaken at the open Friday, weighed by disappointing results from U.S. tech giants Apple (NASDAQ:) and Amazon (NASDAQ:), bucking the recent positive trend of corporate results.

At 2:05 AM ET (0605 GMT), the contract in Germany traded 0.6% lower, in France dropped 0.5% and the contract in the U.K. fell 0.4%.

European stocks are set for strong gains in October, boosted by a swathe of positive earnings, but the week is set to end on a negative note after weaker than expected quarterly earnings from both and raised fears about the impact of global supply chain issues coming into the holiday season.

Apple, in particular, noted that supply chain problems during the company's fiscal fourth quarter, and Chief Executive Tim Cook said the impact will be even worse during the current holiday sales quarter.

The earnings season continues in Europe Friday, with BNP Paribas (OTC:) in the spotlight after the French bank, the largest in Europe, launched a share buyback program for a maximum total of 900 million euros ($1 billion) after posting a 79% jump in equities trading in