London's FTSE 100 Index, the DAX in Frankfurt and the CAC-40 Index in Paris all opened flat.
Euro-zone finance ministers said Thursday they were ready to give Greece money from a new bailout—provided a bond swap that will cut the debt Greece owes its private creditors by more than €100 billion goes according to plan in the coming week. The summit positive overall, with EU leaders mentioning that Greece had made sufficient progress to access the bailout plan and a decision to speed up payment to the permanent bailout fund, said Crédit Agricole.
Signs also emerged that Germany was yielding to international pressure to boost the euro zone's bailout funds. Key German politicians, including two important allies of Chancellor Angela Merkel, said they were willing to back at least a temporary increase in the firewall against its debt crisis.
The two-day EU summit resumes Friday and a news conference is expected at around noon. "Today's news conference might leave the door open for an agreement at the forthcoming Group of Eight and Group of 20 meetings [May 19-20 and June 18-19 respectively] when an increased involvement of the International Monetary Fund in the euro-zone debt crisis might be announced," said Annalisa Piazza, strategist at Newedge.
German real seasonally-adjusted retail sales fell sharply on a monthly basis in January, initial data from the Federal Statistics Office showed Friday.
The 1.6% decrease was far below analysts' expectations of a 0.3% increase. This followed a 0.1% increase in December. Yearly data showed retail sales up 1.6% in January in inflation-adjusted terms and 3.5% in nominal terms.
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