European shares treaded water in early deals on Friday, as investors stayed on the sidelines before a crucial U.S. jobs report, while semiconductor stocks slipped after Samsung Electronics’s downbeat profit forecast.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index (STOXX) was trading flat near its more than 12-months high by 0704 GMT. It was set for its fifth straight weekly rise, fueled by a rally that was set off by hopes of an easing economic policy from major central banks and a U.S.-China trade truce.
Technology shares (SX8P) retreated 0.9% with Infineon (DE:IFXGn), STMicroelectronics (MI:STM) and Siltronic (DE:WAFGn) slipping between 0.7% and 1.5% after Samsung’s (KS:005930) dour forecast showed the impact of U.S.-China trade war on global chip and smartphone markets.
Adding to tech woes, Swedish industrial technology group Hexagon (ST:HEXAb) warned of a drop in quarterly revenue due to the U.S.-China trade war, sending its shares down 14%.
Investors in U.S. financial markets will return from Independence Day holiday to focus on the non-farm payrolls, due at 12:30 GMT.
U.S. job growth was likely to rebound in June, but that would probably not be enough to discourage the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates this month amid growing evidence the economy is slowing.
Britain’s FTSE 100 (FTSE) fell 0.2%, more than its peers, weighed down by declines in mining and energy stocks.