By Peter Nurse 

- European stock markets are expected to open marginally higher Friday, as investors await the release of key Eurozone inflation data ahead of the release of the widely-watched U.S. monthly jobs report.

At 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT), the contract in Germany traded 0.4% higher, in France climbed 0.5%, while the contract in the U.K. rose 0.4%.

The main European stock indices received a boost earlier this week from a bigger-than-expected drop in the speed of rises, raising hopes that the could rein in its aggressive interest rate hikes reasonably quickly.

This brings the release of data later in the session firmly into focus. 

The December CPI figure is expected to come in at 9.7% on an annual basis, only a small reduction from the 10.1% growth the prior month, but there is a degree of confidence within the markets that there could be a positive surprise with a bigger drop.

Earlier Friday, rose 1.1% on the month in November, but this still represented an annual drop of 5.9%, while the country’s slumped 5.3% on the month.

The European data can set the stage for the U.S. jobs report later in the session. 

The U.S. report, released Thursday, continued to point to a strong labor market despite the Fed’s attempt to tame inflation, and are expected to have continued the theme, rising 200,000 in December, while the rate is seen staying at a healthy 3.7%.

Such healthy numbers could again stymie bets that an end to rate rises is coming anytime soon.

In the corporate sector, Sodexo (EPA:) is likely to be in the spotlight Friday after the French catering and food services group beat forecasts for first-quarter , as a continued return to the workplace helped its On-site business rebound above pre-pandemic levels.

Oil prices rose Friday after the release of relatively bullish U.S. inventories data for last week, but the market remained on track for a large weekly loss as demand concerns continue to weigh.

Data from the Energy Information Administration, released Thursday, showed that rose by 1.7 million barrels last week, but the bulk of this growth was driven by a nearly 3 million barrel release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Additionally, distillate inventories, which include diesel and , dropped more than expected, and gasoline stocks fell 346,000 barrels, suggesting demand remained strong in the U.S. during the festive period. 

By 02:00 ET, futures traded 0.8% higher at $74.22 a barrel, while the contract rose 0.6% to $79.17. 

That said, both crude contracts were still set to lose around 7% this week on concerns a global recession at the start of 2023 will severely hit demand. 

Additionally, rose 0.2% to $1,843.90/oz, while traded 0.1% lower at 1.0516.