Europe open: Stocks start slightly higher, analysts wary

Stocks have started the morning trading slightly higher, tracking overnight gains on Wall Street but analysts are worried about buying into Thursday's bounce.

At 0811 GMT, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was ahead by 0.04% or 0.17 points to 385.10, alongside a rise of 0.20% or 25.62 points to 13,072.84 for the German Dax but a dip of 0.03% or 7.36 points for the FTSE Mibtel to 22,199.24.

"European markets managed to snap their five day losing streak yesterday, as some cautious buyers returned to the fray after the worst run of daily losses so far this year. The big question remains as to whether this is merely a pause in the context of a wider correction or whether we'll see a resumption of the uptrend that has been in place since the beginning of 2016.

"Having seen sharp declines last week it remains to be seen whether we'll see two successive weekly declines for markets in Europe, as we head into the weekend," said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

The economic calendar was light at the end of the week, with only euro area current account data for September set for release at 1000 GMT, alongside figures on construction output in the single currency bloc due out at 1000 GMT.

Later in the session, US housing starts data for October were expected at 1330 GMT, followed by a speech from San Francisco Fed boss John Williams at 2230 GMT.

Speaking on Thursday evening, Williams called a re-think of how central banks, globally, can stimulate their economies when many of them are facing the so-called zero bound on interest rates - including the impact of 'spill-over' effects.