European shares inch higher, focus on U.S. payrolls
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PARIS, Aug 3 (Reuters) - European stocks inched higher in early trade on Friday, halting the previous session's sharp pull-back, as investors await U.S. jobs data that could potentially fuel expectations of further stimulus from the Federal Reserve.
At 0705 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1 percent at 1,056.55 points.
The benchmark index dropped 1.2 percent on Thursday, trimming recent hefty gains, after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi disappointed investors who had expected immediate action to help lower the borrowing costs of Spain and Italy.
"European indexes have failed to cross the strong resistances hit this week, so we're looking at a potential retracement of at least 50 percent of the past week's gains made on the back of the 'Draghi effect'," Aurel BGC chartist Gerard Sagnier said.
"But that said, we're neutral on the Euro STOXX 50 at this point, we stay on the sidelines."
Euro zone banks bounced back after Thursday's sell-off, with BNP Paribas up 1 percent, while among industrials, Siemens added 3.2 percent after the engineering conglomerate said it started a repurchase of its own stock of up to 3 billion euros.
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