European Shares Inch Higher In Cautious Trade

European stocks rose slightly in cautious trade on Friday as investors mulled the global interest rate outlook and kept a wary eye on China’s property sector.

Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd and three of its units had their shares suspended today after Kaisa’s finance unit missed a payment on wealth management products it guaranteed, the latest sign of stress in the nation’s beleaguered real estate industry.

Traders also awaited key U.S. payroll data due later in the day for further clues on the U.S. economic outlook.

Employment is expected to jump by 425,000 jobs in October after an increase of 194,000 jobs in September. The unemployment rate is expected to edge down to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.2 percent to 484.15, extending gains for the seventh straight session.

The German DAX traded flat with a positive bias, while France’s CAC 40 index rose 0.3 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.4 percent.

German chemicals group Lanxess fell 1.7 percent after the company warned of cost pressures weighing on its 2021 profits.

Rheinmetall AG, an integrated technology group, rallied 2.2 percent after posting a rise in sales for the nine-month period ended in September.

Beverage filling and packaging company Krones AG jumped 5.3 percent after reporting turnaround results for its third-quarter.

Miners Anglo American, Antofagasta and Glencore were seeing modest losses on worries about Chinese regulations on coking coal.

British banks were rising despite U.K.’s 10-year government bond yields hitting a one-month low on the BoE dovish monetary policy stance.

IAG fell nearly 2 percent after warning of a bigger-than-expected loss of 3 billion euro ($3.5 billion) for 2021.

Beazley soared 3.7 percent. The insurance company said the momentum from the first half has persisted into the second with rate rises and premium growth that have exceeded the Group’s expectations.

In economic releases, investors shrugged off data showing that German industrial production declined unexpectedly in September.

German industrial production dropped 1.1 percent on a monthly basis, but slower than the revised 3.5 percent decline seen in August, Destatis reported. Economists had forecast a monthly growth of 1 percent.

On a yearly basis, retail sales fell 1 percent, in contrast to the 2.2 percent increase in August.

Separate data published by IHS Markit revealed that the downturn in Germany’s construction sector continued in October largely due to material shortages and acute price pressures.

The construction Purchasing Managers’ Index rose to 47.7 in October from 47.1 in September.

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