European markets are, for now, withstanding the turbulence that rattled Wall Street yesterday (-1.5% for the Nasdaq, -0.5% for the S&P 500), with the software sector particularly hard hit.
Since the start of the year, the S&P 500 has gained 0.5%, matching Frankfurt but underperforming both the CAC 40 (+1.4%) and London (+4.7%). Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite has dropped 1.4% since January 1. The Dow Jones, however, has fared better, rising 3% over the period.

"After years of 'Europe bashing', valuations are attractive and a lot of skepticism is already priced in. The return of public investment (German plan, infrastructure) could create real positive surprises, especially in neglected asset classes like some small and mid caps," says Pierre-Alexis Dumont, Chief Investment Officer at Sycomore AM.

In Europe, investors will turn their attention to Frankfurt at 2:30 p.m., where the ECB is set to unveil its monetary policy. Barring any dramatic twists, a "status quo" scenario is widely anticipated by market participants.

"Christine Lagarde has no objective reason to change the current rate level as inflation expectations remain close to the 2% target. Moreover, the solid growth in the eurozone does not justify a cut," stated Edouard Faure, Head of Credit France at Swiss Life Asset Managers France, yesterday.

The day will also be marked by the release of numerous corporate quarterly results, including Amazon, Linde, KKR, and ConocoPhillips.

In Europe, ArcelorMittal reported, for its 2025 fiscal year, an adjusted EPS of $3.85, compared to $2.95 the previous year, despite EBITDA dropping over 7% to $6.54 billion and revenues declining nearly 2% to $61.35 billion.

Leading the CAC 40, BNP Paribas is up 3.4% after reporting group net income of €2.97 billion for the fourth quarter of 2025, a 28% year-on-year increase, as well as gross operating income of €4.84 billion, up 13.3%.

Rheinmetall slumps nearly 7% in Frankfurt after its pre-close, due to more cautious forecasts than expected and revenue 12% below consensus.

BBVA drops nearly 5% at the start of the session in Madrid, despite the banking group posting a 4.5% increase in profit to €10.5 billion for 2025, the highest in its history.

On the statistics front, the U.S. will release weekly jobless claims (2:30 p.m.) as well as the JOLTS job openings report (4:00 p.m.).

Meanwhile, French manufacturing output dropped sharply in December (-0.8% after +0.5% in November), according to Insee on Thursday. Output also fell across all industry (-0.7% after +0.1% in November 2025).

In Germany, after a 5.7% surge in November (revised from an initial estimate of 5.6%), German manufacturing orders jumped 7.8% by volume in December 2025 compared to the previous month, according to Destatis.

The rest of the news in a few figures: In London, Brent crude is down 0.8% at $68.4 a barrel. Gold is down 0.8% to $4,925 an ounce. The euro is stable against the greenback at $1.18. Finally, Bitcoin continues its slide towards $71,175 (-1.6%).