# European stocks and U.S. equity futures rise ahead of jobs data

The Stoxx Europe 600 index
SXXP,
+0.24%
rose 0.2% after a mostly flat session Thursday. The index has gained 0.8% this week to kick off the last trading month of 2021. The FTSE 100 UK:UKX led the regional indexes with a 0.7% gain, while the German DAX
DAX,
+0.06%
was flat and the French CAC 40
PX1,
+0.41%
rose 0.4%.

U.S. stock futures rose. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA,
+0.28%
closed higher and S&P 500
SPX,
-0.06%
finished lower, but both off intraday highs after Pfizer
PFE,
-1.74%
said it expected to ship only half of the vaccines it had planned to deliver this year. The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
+0.22%
booked a new closing record.

Read: Biden to call for 100 days of mask-wearing, will keep Fauci as chief medical adviser

Investors are waiting for U.S. payrolls data, which is expected to show jobs growth slowed in November amid a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths in recent weeks. Economists polled by MarketWatch are predicting a 438,000 rise, down from the 638,000 gain seen in the previous month.

In Europe, data from Germany showed manufacturing orders rose for the sixth straight month ahead of a second lockdown.

Major oil companies were higher, with shares of Royal Dutch Shell
RDSA,
+2.38%

RDS.A,
+0.87%
and BP
BP,
+1.37%

BP,
+2.53%
up 3% each, and Total TOT FR:FP up around 2%. Those gains came as crude prices
CL.1,
+1.88%

BRN00,
+1.84%
continued to rise after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies on Thursday agreed to a gradual rise in crude production starting in January, defying earlier expectations for an extension of current cuts in output.

Leading the Stoxx 600 gainers, shares of Dassault Aviation
AM,
+5.36%
climbed over 6% after a report in French weekly financial newspaper, La Tribune, that Indonesia may buy 48 Rafale jet fighters.

Shares of Associated British Foods
ABF,
+2.08%
rose nearly 3% after the U.K. conglomerate said autumn store closures likely cost it 430 million pounds ($578.4 million) in sales, but that it still expects full-year Primark revenue and profit to beat fiscal 2020 results.

SSE
SSE,
+3.01%
shares rose 4%. The FTSE 100 energy company said that Italian oil group ENI
ENI,
+2.03%

E,
+0.49%
has agreed to acquire a 20% stake in the Dogger Bank A and B wind farm project owned by SSE and Norwegian state-owned multinational energy company Equinor
EQNR,
-0.18%

EQNR,
+2.15%.

Also contributing to the Stoxx 600 gains, shares of heavily weighted drugmakers AstraZeneca
AZN,
-1.14%

AZN,
+1.57%
and GlaxoSmithKline
GSK,
-0.34%
were up more than 2% each.