This was CNBC's live blog covering European markets.
European stocks closed higher on Friday as earnings reports from the region were well-received despite ongoing trade uncertainty.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.35% higher. Regionally, Germany's DAX was up by 0.8% and France's CAC 40 rose by 0.45%. After briefly dipping into the red, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed up 0.1% for its tenth straight session in the green, extending its longest positive run since 2019.
Friday takes the Stoxx 600's winning streak to four sessions.
Corporate earnings were in focus, with shares of jet engine maker Safran rising 4.3% after beating expectations. Meanwhile, defense contractor Saab AB reported first-quarter earnings that narrowly beat expectations, initially sending its shares sharply lower before trading up by 5%. Gains faded to just 0.16% by the market close.
In Asia, markets rose after Wall Street gained for a third straight day as tech stocks rallied, with investors assessing the trade climate as the U.S. tones down tariff rhetoric and China reportedly mulls suspending levies.
U.S. stocks however slipped on Friday morning following their winning run.
- CNBC's Sean Conlon and Lee Ying Shan contributed reporting.
European stock markets closed higher on Thursday, with the Stoxx 600 index provisionally climbing 0.34%.
Construction led Stoxx sector gains, up 1.9%, as industrials rose 1.3%. Telecoms posted the steepest losses, down 1.65%.
Jari Stehn, chief European economist at Goldman Sachs, discusses his outlook for the region's economy.
After notching three days of back-to-back gains, stocks opened Friday's trading session little changed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 65 points, or 0.2%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were both trading around flat.
Russia's central bank held its key interest rate steady at 21% on Friday.
Policymakers confirmed their inflation forecast of 7% to 8% in 2025, pledging to keep monetary conditions "as tight as necessary to return inflation to the target in 2026."
The central bank noted that domestic demand in Russia continued to outpace the supply of goods and services.
Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron predicts two interest rate cuts in the next year despite inflation being at 3.3%, above the government's target.
Inflation has been higher at the end of 2024 and start of 2025 in light of higher demand and lower supply of labor, given the high proportion of working-age Israelis deployed to serve in the war in Gaza.
But "we believe that imbalance is going to come into balance in the second half of the year," Yaron told CNBC on the sidelines of the IMF Spring Meeting in Washington D.C., "as some of the fiscal consolidations are going to weigh in on demand."
The central bank chief sees inflation coming into target between 1% and 3% later this year, "as long as there is no further escalation" of the war. If that inflation rate comes down, "we'll be able to do somewhere like around two cuts within a year from now, or we price in two cuts in a year from now."
He added, however, that because of significant global and local uncertainty, the bank will have to wait and see how the data comes in. "If inflation is sticky, more sticky than we think, we'll have to be restrictive and stay restrictive for longer," he said.
Beaten-up chip stock BE Semiconductor shot up more than 5% shortly after the open after analysts at Deutsche Bank upgraded it to "buy".
Shares of BESI have fallen by 27% so far this year. The stock pared some gains to trade around 2.7% higher by 8.45 am in London.
The Dutch multinational reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter results earlier this week, but equity analysts at Deutsche Bank suggest that it should have been "no surprise to see a miss" amid the uncertain macroeconomic backdrop.
Instead, they pointed to green shoots in the hybrid bonding order book at the company. Hybrid bonding (HB) enables semiconductor chips to be piled on top of each other, increasing their density.
The company said it had received hybrid bonding orders from two leading memory producers for HBM 4 chips that are primarily used for AI applications, as well as additional orders from a leading Asian chip maker.
Analyst Robert Sanders said: "It is time in our view to look past lingering softness in mainstream, as our industry conversations support Besi's confidence on hybrid bonding volumes in 2026/27 being a big step-up from 2025."
"Accordingly, we now think HB bookings will step up markedly in [second half of 2025] (led by TSMC, Micron and Intel), and for momentum to then push on from there," Sanders added.
Analysts have downgraded earnings estimates for European companies to "recessionary" levels, which could indicate a contrarian "buy" signal, according to Citi's equity strategists.
While European stocks appear to be outperforming their U.S. peers this year, Citi's European equity strategy team, led by Beata Manthey, said "[Earnings per share] downgrades have nevertheless continued to accelerate, with our proprietary Earnings Revision Index (ERI) recently hitting "recessionary" levels of around -60%."
The earnings per share estimates for the Stoxx Europe 600 index have fallen by 8.6% over the 12 months, according to FactSet data.