Morning Bid: Stocks shake it off

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Gregor Stuart Hunter

Global equities are heading for their best week since early May as renewed signs of expansion in Asian activity gauges on Friday helped lift stocks out of their mid-week doldrums.

The MSCI All-Country World Index is up 1.7% for the week after Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) data for China, Japan, Australia and Singapore released on Friday indicated solid expansion across the region.

That helped cement gains after Thursday's lukewarm U.S. jobs report poured cold water on the prospect of an imminent rate hike from the Federal Reserve.

After a choppy start as tech hardware stocks fell in sympathy with battered chipmakers in the U.S. session, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.1% to snap a two-day losing streak as South Korea's Kospi led gains.

Investors shrugged off signs from Silicon Valley that the agentic AI future may be further off than first thought when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged shortcomings in the company's sweeping restructuring at an internal town hall on Thursday.

He said AI agents had not progressed as quickly as he had expected, according to a recording heard by Reuters.

In early European trades, pan-region futures were up 0.3%, German DAX futures gained 0.5% and FTSE futures were 0.2% higher. S&P 500 e-mini futures were up 0.3%.

Against the yen, the U.S. dollar was flat at 161.125 yen, with the greenback giving up gains as market liquidity was thinned by a U.S. holiday on Friday and traders remained on watch for intervention.

In the meantime, fans counting the hours until pop megastar Taylor Swift and NFL player Travis Kelce tie the knot at New York's Madison Square Garden may have to console themselves after the New York Post's Page Six reported on Thursday they may have already married in secret.

Key developments that could influence markets on Friday:

• France: Industrial Output for May, S&P Services PMI for June

• Germany: S&P Services PMI for June

• Euro zone: S&P Services Final PMI for June

• UK: S&P Global Services PMI for June

• Debt auctions:

• UK: 1-month, 3-month and 6-month government debt

(Reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Jamie Freed)