European markets rise ahead of more G20/IMF meeting and Italian Presidential election

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - The German DAX 30 (+0.53%), the French CAC 40 (+1.63%), the Italian FTSE MIB (+2.24%) and the British FTSE 100 (+0.71%) are edging higher on Friday, as a hard week comes to an end with a G20/IMF meeting under way, focused on monetary policy and fiscal targets. The Presidential election in Italy is also being eyed. PD’s Bersani proposed Romano Prodi as president after seeing his previous candidate, Franco Marini, being rejected by his own party.

German PPI fell -0.2% (consensus of 0.0%) and annualized data eased from 1.2% to 0.4% (consensus of 0.7%). EMU current account surprised positively, with a wider seasonally adjusted surplus from €13.8B to €16.3B in February, beating expectations of €15.0B, and n.s.a. data at €12.1B instead of the €1.3B consensus. Italy industrial orders fell -2.5% (MoM) and from -3.3% to -7.9% (YoY), while industrial sales contracted -4.7% (MoM).

Futures for the American S&P 500, Nasdaq 100 and Dow Jones 30 are signaling a higher opening by +0.63% ahead of an empty calendar.