London (AFP) - European stock markets rebounded slightly Friday before key US payrolls data, after the previous session's sharp losses driven by interest rate hikes and banking sector woes.
Sentiment was partly boosted after US tech titan Apple said first-quarter iPhone sales and services revenue beat forecasts, capping a successful earnings season for the sector.
Yet Asia diverged after a Wall Street slump Thursday on renewed US banking fears and this week's quarter-point rate hikes from the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve, who are seeking to tackle stubbornly high inflation.
The dollar wavered before April's US non-farm payrolls (NFP) data, which will give clues over the health of the world's biggest economy and the next step for the Fed.
Data watch
"With the Fed shifting toward a likely pause in interest rates, the monthly jobs report takes on a different significance," said Forex.com analyst Matthew Weller.
"Now, instead of looking for a reading that's good enough to keep the Fed raising interest rates, traders will shifting their focus to watching out for data that is bad enough to prompt rate cuts."
Investors are also pondering whether the ongoing US banking rout will convince the Fed to begin cutting interest rates sooner than planned.
Zaye Capital Markets analyst Naeem Aslam cautioned however that traders were "unlikely" to place any big bets ahead of the key data.
Wall Street had finished sharply down thanks to jangled nerves over mid-size US banks.
Shares in regional US lenders plunged on Thursday, with PacWest plummeting 50.6 percent, Western Alliance slumping 38.5 percent and First Horizon losing 33.6 percent amid lingering fears for the health of the sector.Short-selling was making matters worse.
But in after-hours trade on Friday, PacWest was up 19 percent from Thursday's close, Western Alliance was up 14 percent and First Horizon gained seven.
Thursday's sell-off in PacWest had been exacerbated by media reports saying the bank was considering the possibility of a sale or other capital-raising measures in the wake of the recent collapse of other mid-sized lenders.
The bank sought to assure investors it had not "experienced out-of-the-ordinary deposit flows", and that its "cash and available liquidity remains solid", but fears continued to fester.
"Traders are largely worried about the ongoing banking crisis in the US, and for them, it is difficult to see where the end of the road is," warned Aslam.
Back in Asia, Hong Kong stocks finished half a percent higher after paring early gains, with tech and property companies among the big winners.
Shanghai, however, shed nearly half a percent as fears of China's uneven recovery set in and a less-than-stellar earnings season failed to impress.
Key figures around 1100 GMT
London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 7,733.73 points
Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.8 percent at 15,858.13
Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,373.41
EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.2 percent at 4,297.50
Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 20,049.31 (close)
Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,334.50 (close)
Tokyo - Nikkei 225: Closed for holiday
New York - Dow: DOWN 0.9 percent at 33,127.74 points (close)
Euro/dollar: UP at $1.1030 from $1.1012 on Thursday
Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2605 from $1.2574
Dollar/yen: DOWN at 134.11 yen from 134.29 yen
Euro/pound: DOWN at 87.50 pence from 87.58 pence
Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.7 percent at $73.73 per barrel
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.6 percent at $69.65 per barrel
