By Peter Nurse 

- European stock markets traded higher Friday, ending a difficult week on a positive note despite disappointing Chinese growth data and an uncertain political situation in Italy.

By 04:15 AM ET (0815 GMT), the DAX in Germany traded 1.3% higher, the CAC 40 in France rose 0.5%, and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.8%.

The main European indices pushed higher Friday, helped by reduced expectations of a 100 basis-point hike by the Federal Reserve later this month after known hawks Fed Governor Christopher Waller and St. Louis Fed President James Bullard both said they favored another 75 basis-point hike for this month, in spite of Wednesday’s red-hot inflation figures.

A sharp increase in U.S. interest rates runs the risk of sending the U.S. economy, the world’s main growth driver, into recession.

The tone has also been helped by the decision of Italian President Sergio Mattarella to reject the resignation of widely respected Prime Minister Mario Draghi after he had decided to quit on losing the support of one of the country's largest political parties from his broad coalition government.

Fears of a global economic slowdown had plagued stock markets for much of this week, and further evidence of this emerged earlier Friday after China's economy contracted sharply in the second quarter. Its GDP fell 2.6% from the previous quarter, compared with a revised 1.4% gain in the previous quarter, highlighting the toll on activity in the world’s second-largest economy from widespread COVID lockdowns.

In corporate news, Aston Martin (LON:AML) stock soared over 15% after the luxury car maker announced a £653 million ($772 million) funding package in which Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund will become its second-largest shareholder.

Burberry (LON:BRBY) stock fell 7.2% after the British fashion brand announced a drop in sales in China, a key market, of 35% in the first quarter.

Fevertree (LON:FEVR) stock slumped over 28% after the maker of premium drink mixers warned that its margins could be impacted by “significantly” worsening logistics and costs.

TomTom (AS:TOM2) stock rose 8.4% after the Dutch navigation and digital mapping company confirmed its 2022 revenue outlook despite strained supply chains.

Oil prices fell Friday and remained on course to end below $100 a barrel for the first time since early April after the Chinese growth data raised concerns over a global economic slowdown.

U.S. President Joe Biden will fly to Saudi Arabia later Friday, in an attempt to get his Gulf allies to pump more oil and thus lower prices. However, he might find this difficult to achieve as spare capacity at the majority of the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is running very low.

By 04:15 AM ET, U.S. crude futures traded 0.7% lower at $95.12 a barrel, down over 9% on the week, while the Brent contract rose 0.3% to $98.82, over 7% lower on the week. 

Additionally, gold futures fell 0.3% to $1,700.35/oz, while EUR/USD edged 0.1% higher to 1.0026.