European stock markets moved slightly lower on Friday, with investors keeping a close eye on negotiations between Greece and its lenders as well as the latest confidence data from Germany. The Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP, -0.14% fell 0.2% to 407.19, on track to break a four-day winning streak. The benchmark was still looking at a weekly advance of 2.7%, which would be the best weekly performance since April 10. The solid weekly showing comes after European Central Bank executive board member Benoît Coeuré on Tuesday said the bank will step up its bond purchases ahead of an expected summer lull. The euro EURUSD, +0.4319% slipped after the Coeuré comments, but have since recovered a bit of lost territory, exchanging hands at $1.1181 on Friday, up from $1.1113 late Thursday in New York. Ongoing Greece concerns: Athens remained in the headlines on Friday, as European leaders met for a second day in Riga. After last night’s meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande, a Greek government spokesman, Gabriel Sakellaridis, said Friday morning that a reform deal to release the next tranche of bailout money should be reached within the next 10 days. That would be just in time for Athens to meet a €300 million payment to the International Monetary Fund on June 5. Greece is at risk of running out of cash in coming weeks unless it receives the much-needed bailout funds, which are being withheld until the government and international lenders agree on a range of economic overhauls. However, no breakthrough was expected at the EU summit on Friday and economists worry a deal could still be far off. “Greece is still sticking to its ‘red lines’, something that in the eyes of its creditors is impeding the progress of any potential reforms, and therefore the successful negotiation of a solution. The lack of actual movement on the issue had a dampening effect on the eurozone indices this morning,� said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, in a note Friday morning. Greece’s Athex Composite index GD, +0.05% was flat at 845.81. Other markets: Germany’s DAX 30 index DAX, -0.33% slipped 0.4% to 11,823.11 after wobbling on the back of fresh business-confidence numbers for the country. The Ifo business-climate index slipped to 108.5 from 108.6 in April, its first drop since October 2014. Still, the reading was better than the 108.4 expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal. France’s CAC 40 index PX1, +0.03% was flat around 5,148.70. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index UKX, +0.62% bucked the negative trend among major European benchmarks, trading 0.6% higher at 7,056.04. The index got a boost from Vodafone Group PLC VOD, +3.92% VOD, +4.15% which rallied 4% on M&A/takeover speculation. Movers: Shares of Cie. Financière Richemont SA CFR, -0.63% dropped 0.9% after the luxury-goods company reported an expected 36% drop in annual profit. U.K. utility firm Severn Trent PLC SVT, -1.33% lost 1.4% after reporting a 54% drop in pretax profit. On a more upbeat note, shares of Swiss Re AG SREN, +1.01% climbed 1% after Citigroup lifted the re-insurer to buy from neutral.

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