European shares edged higher in early trade on Friday, after gains in the United States and Japan, but with traders cautious ahead of a key labour market report.
At 8:09 a.m., the FTSEurofirst 300 index of
top European shares was up 0.3 percent at 1,057.54 points, on course for
a rise of more than 3 percent over the week.
"People are watching
the growth in (U.S.) private sector employment, which is likely to be
too low to be good enough for the economy," said Bernard McAlinden,
investment strategist at NCB Stockbrokers in Dublin.
"The market
is going up on relatively unconvincing economic data. It just needs to
know there won't be a double dip. There's no competition from interest
rates and bond yields."
The heavyweight banking sector was among
the gainers, in a broad market rise. Deutsche Bank and UniCredit rose
0.5 and 0.4 percent respectively.