A Christmas market in Cottbus, Germany.
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European shares look set to lose ground on Friday, as investors digest a swathe of interest rate decisions and look ahead to crunch budget talks in France.
Futures tied to London’s FTSE 100 were last seen trading 0.3% lower. Those tied to Germany’s DAX index and the French CAC 40 were down 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively, while Swiss SMI futures shed 0.3%.
Regional investors are reeling from a day packed with central bank decisions, with Thursday bringing monetary policy updates from the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, Norges Bank and Riksbank. All but the Bank of England, which trimmed by 25 basis points, kept their key interest rates unchanged.
The ECB upgraded its outlook for economic growth in the eurozone, saying it now expects growth of up to 1.4% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026.
On Friday, European traders will also be watching news from France, where lawmakers are set to hold crunch budget talks. A joint committee of politicians will hash out the terms of a spending plan for 2026 on Friday, but division in terms of political ideology could make finding a consensus difficult. Failure to make a breakthrough would force Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to use emergency measures to allow spending and borrowing to continue into the new year until a budget can be established.
Last month, Lecornu said the potential absence of a budget before the new year was a “danger that hangs over France,” according to local media.
The country has already faced its share of political turmoil this year, when Lecornu — France’s fifth PM in five years — resigned after 27 days in office, only to be reinstated into the position later that week.
Elsewhere, European Union officials on Friday said they had approved a 90 billion euro ($105.5 billion) aid package for Ukraine, opting not to tap into frozen Russian assets to fund loans to Kyiv.
Economic data from Europe today includes GfK’s latest German consumer confidence reading, U.K. retail sales figures, and an Italian business confidence print.
Across the Atlantic, global investors will be monitoring figures on existing home sales as well as the final Michigan consumer sentiment data for December. Stock futures on Wall Street were mixed on Friday morning, after cooling inflation figures helped U.S. stocks snap a four-day losing streak on Thursday.
