European equities eased on Friday, as investors digested mixed quarterly results and awaited key euro zone inflation figures to close out an action-packed month.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index (.STOXX) slipped 0.1% by 0800 GMT, on track to extend declines to the fourth straight session and just about 0.5% below its record high touched on Wednesday.
The benchmark index was on track to end the week slightly lower as traders weighed the chances of fewer interest rate cuts in the U.S. and Europe, a flurry of earnings results from U.S. tech heavyweights and a fragile Sino-U.S. trade truce.
The STOXX 600, however, is headed for a fourth straight monthly gain.
Attention will turn to the euro zone inflation data later in the day after the European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at 2% on Thursday for the third meeting in a row, flagging a more resilient economy.
Market participants increasingly expect the ECB to maintain current rates rather than resume cuts in this cycle.
Meanwhile, Apple's (AAPL.O) strong holiday-quarter iPhone sales forecast and sharp acceleration in Amazon's (AMZN.O) cloud revenue growth reinforced Big Tech’s dominance and boosted Wall Street futures.
In Europe, Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO) rose 2% after Denmark's biggest lender reported third-quarter net profit slightly above expectations.
Paris-based reinsurer Scor (SCOR.PA) dropped 5.4% after reporting third-quarter results, leading losses on the STOXX 600.
(This story has been corrected to remove the reference to French inflation data being due later in the day in paragraph 5)
