Having said that, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde said that the world economic outlook is "gloomy," and warned that no nation, irrespective of their economic status, is immune to the crisis. "The world economic outlook at the moment is not particularly rosy. It is quite gloomy," Lagarde said at a conference held at the U.S. State Department in Washington.
Banks could be in focus as Fitch Ratings downgraded its long-term credit ratings on six major global banks, including U.S. banks such as Bank of America, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, citing the stronger headwinds facing the banking industry as a whole amid both economic developments as well as "a myriad of regulatory changes." However, Fitch affirmed the credit ratings on Swiss banking giant UBS AG.
Tech shares may also see some action after Accenture, a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company, reported strong quarterly results but gave a cautious view of the second quarter amid the worsening global economy.
Asian stocks are trading mostly higher, with the benchmark indexes in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and South Korea rising over a percent each, as positive data on the U.S. jobs market and manufacturing sector signaled the world's largest economy is strengthening.
The battered Indian rupee, which hit a record low against the greenback this week, rose 2 percent in early trading Friday, as the Reserve Bank of India stepped in to check volatility. The central bank on Thursday sold dollars through public sector banks and announced a slew of measures such as curbing currency forwards and cutting banks' forex trading limits to curb speculation in the foreign exchange market.
Meanwhile, the RBI on Friday kept repo and reverse repo rates and the cash reserve ratio unchanged even as it sees the economic growth moderating amid global economic uncertainties.
Elsewhere, Singapore's non-oil domestic exports unexpectedly rose 1.6 percent in November from a year earlier, reversing the sharp decline of 16 percent in October, data released today showed. Separately, Fitch Ratings has returned the investment grade credit rating to Indonesia and said the nation's GDP growth will average more than 6 percent per annum over the period to 2013.
Closer home, business confidence data from France and external trade figures from Eurozone are due in the European session.
French central bank governor Christian Noyer, meanwhile, slammed credit rating agencies for threatening to downgrade France's AAA status, stressing that the present economic situation warrants downgrading United Kingdom ahead of France.
"If the rating agencies feel compelled to act, they should then "begin by downgrading the United Kingdom which has bigger deficits, more debt, higher inflation, less growth than us and where credit is shrinking." Noyere said in a interview with French regional newspaper Le Telegramme in Brittany.
In corporate news, German lender Deutsche Bank AG has put its global asset management business for sale with a price tag of about 2 billion euros, or $2.61 billion, the Financial Times reported.
Utility E.ON AG said it was committed to invest $7 billion over the next five years on its comprehensive program to become a green energy provider.
Sygnis Pharma AG said the Phase II clinical trail of its experimental AX200 protein-based treatment for acute ischemic stroke showed no improvement in patient outcome relative to the placebo- treated patient.
Credit Suisse announced that Peter Antico will join as Managing Director and Head North America Rates within the Bank's Fixed Income Department, effective January 1, 2012.
The economic outlook for Eurozone continues to be subject to particularly high uncertainty and intensified downside risks related to intensified tensions in the financial markets, the European Central Bank said in its monthly bulletin.
Jennifer McKeown, senior European economist at Capital Economics, has said that Germany's downbeat economic outlook, evidenced by the latest ZEW survey, indicates that recovery has almost stalled and the economy appears to be heading for a recession in the near term amid the deepening Eurozone crisis.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is advancing 0.60 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is gaining 0.70 percent.
The German DAX is adding 0.97 percent and the French CAC 40 is rising 0.55 percent. The UK's FTSE 100 is advancing 0.64 percent and Switzerland's SMI is gaining 0.63 percent.
In Frankfurt, Commerzbank is adding about 4 percent on rumors about a possible bailout. Deutsche Bank is down 0.3 percent.
Allianz and MunichRe are gaining about 1 percent each.
Daimler is up 0.9 percent, while BMW is losing 0.2 percent and Volkswagen is down 0.7 percent.
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