(RTTNews) - During the European session on Friday, the euro advanced against most major currencies as stocks edged up ahead of key U.S jobs data.
The U.S. non-farm payrolls data, which is due to be released at 8:30 am ET, is expected to increase by 135,000 in January. But the unemployment rate is expected to remain unchanged at 8.5 percent.
Thus far, Germany's DAX gained 0.38 percent, France's CAC 40 index added 0.44 percent and U.K.'s FTSE 100 index advanced 0.49 percent.
Germany's private sector output expanded in January at the fastest pace since June 2011, but the increase was slightly weaker than the flash estimate, final data from Markit Economics showed today.
The final Composite Output Index, which measures the combined output of the manufacturing and service sectors, rose to 53.9 in January from 51.3 in December. The flash estimate for January was 54.
At the same time, the services Purchasing Managers' Index came in at 53.7, up from 52.4 in December, but smaller than the flash estimate of 54.5.
Another final data from Markit Economics revealed that the Eurozone private economy stabilized in January as initially estimated.
The final Markit Composite Output Index came in at 50.4 in January, up from 48.3 in December. The reading was unchanged from the earlier flash estimate and exceeded the no-change mark of 50.0 for the first time in five months.
