European Stock Futures Mixed; German Industrial Production Weakens By Investing.com – Investing.com UK

European Stock Futures Mixed; German Industrial Production Weakens By Investing.com – Investing.com UK

© Reuters.

By Peter Nurse 

Investing.com - European stock markets are seen trading in a mixed fashion at the open Friday, helped by further signs of a global economic recovery but concerns about the region's Covid vaccination program remain.

At 3:10 AM ET (0710 GMT), the contract in Germany traded 0.2% lower, while in France climbed 0.1% and the contract in the U.K. rose 0.2%. 

Earlier Friday, China reported that its March rose at their fastest annual pace since July 2018, climbing 4.4% year-on-year, far above February's 1.7% growth.

Although China set a modest GDP growth target of above 6% for 2021 earlier in the year, many expect the Asian economic super power's growth to exceed 8%.

Back in Europe the economic news was less impressive, as Germany's slumped 1.6% on the month in February, according to data released Friday, below the expected growth of 1.5%.

"It would need an explosion of manufacturing and construction activity in March to prevent the German economy from falling into contraction in the first quarter of the year," ING analyst Carsten Brzeski said in a note to clients.

Adding to these concerns has been growing worries over the safety of one of the most prominent vaccines