European equities are expected to open higher Friday following the lead set by their Asia and U.S. counterparts and as investors gear up for a speech from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen.
The FTSE is seen opening up 6 points at 7,017, the German DAX up 9 points at 11,873 and the French CAC up 3 points at 5,149.
Markets are looking ahead to a speech Friday from the U.S. central bank's chair, Janet Yellen, for new clues on when it could hike interest rates. Trading volumes in the U.S. are expected to be sluggish on Friday, however, ahead of the three-day Memorial Day weekend.
In Asia overnight, Shanghai shares hit fresh seven-year highs in early trade, outperforming the region that traded broadly mixed on the final trading day of the week.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) maintained its expansionary monetary stimulus at the conclusion of its two-day meeting on Friday.
Oil is also in focus after prices jumped more than 2 percent on Thursday, giving benchmark Brent crude its biggest rally in more than a week, as drawdowns reported in the Cushing delivery point for U.S. crude futures boosted optimism that a supply glut was easing, Reuters reported.
At an European Union (EU) summit in Riga, Latvia, on Thursday, the French and German leaders, Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel, urged their Greek counterpart, Alexis Tsipras to complete the country's bailout program and said he needs to do more to secure funds urgently needed to avert bankruptcy, Reutuers reported.
Data releases Friday include German Ifo Insitutute business climate data for May and Richemont release full-year earnings.
- CNBC's Patti Domm and See Kit Tang contributed to this market report.
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