LONDON: European shares were expected to open mixed on Thursday after hitting a six-month high in the previous session as investors looked for fresh evidence of improving economic conditions before committing more money to equities.
Financial spread-betters expected Britain's FTSE 100 to open 3 to 4 points lower, or as much as 0.1 percent, Germany's DAX to open 9 to 13 points higher, or as much as 0.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 to open flat.
"Given the strong gains of last night, it is not surprising that we are looking at a flattish start to the European session, but that could easily change based on an array of potentially market moving data," Cameron Peacock, market analyst at IG Markets, said.
Thursday's economic calendar includes euro zone producer prices data for December, due at 1000 GMT, which is expected to show a 0.2 percent contraction month-on-month after a 0.2 percent increase in November.
Across the Atlantic, US weekly jobless claims data will be published at 1330 GMT, with the number of new applicants expected to come in at 375,000, a slight decline from 377,000 last week.
"As the all time high in euro zone unemployment showed on Tuesday, the real economy is still significantly lagging market expectations so traders will be keenly focussed on US labour data today and tomorrow to see how they are coping with their own jobs glut," London Capital Group's dealer Jonathan Sudaria said.
US productivity and labour cost data for the forth quarter of 2011 will also be released at 1330 GMT. Productivity is forecast to rise 0.8 percent versus a 2.3 percent rise the final Q3 report. Unit labour costs are expected to rise 0.8 percent compared with a 2.5 percent decrease in the final Q3 report.
The Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans are due to hold a joint interview at the Chicago Fed at 1400 GMT.
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