European stocks seesawed Friday before the release of a widely watched jobs report from the U.S., and as investors monitored a ramp-up in tensions in Ukraine.
The Stoxx Europe 600 turned higher by less than 1 point to 338.56. It remained in line for a weekly advance of 1.5%.
Pro-Russian militants said that Ukraine has launched a “large-scale operation” to take back control of the city Slavyansk. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called on Ukraine to withdraw its military forces from southeast Ukraine, which would effectively give pro-Russian forces control of the area. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has said a military draft will renewed.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 2 points at 6,811.29, topped by an 11% spike higher in shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC following a surge in the bank’s first-quarter profit to 1.2 billion pounds ($2.02 billion).
Also climbing were shares of InterContinental Hotels Group , up by 9.1% following the company announcement of plans to distribute $750 million to shareholders through a special dividend.
But AstraZeneca PLC shares fell 0.4% as the drug maker and Pfizer Inc. starting talking again about a merger, according to The Wall Street Journal. Pfizer sweetened the terms of an earlier takeover proposal, said people familiar with the matter.
On other country-specific indexes, Germany’s DAX 30 rose 0.1%, while France’s CAC 40 shed 0.3% after being closed Thursday for the May Day holiday. Those indexes were also on track for weekly gains of 2.2% and 0.7%, respectively.
The Eurozone unemployment rate remained at 11.8% in March from the February result, revised down from 11.9%. Analysts expected +11.9%.
UK construction PMI fell to 60.8 versus 62.0 expected, marking its lowest level since October.
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