French Market Advances

(RTTNews) - The French market is in positive territory on Friday, following firm cues from Asia, after concerns about the Federal Reserve policy eased with the emergence of some favorable data from the U.S. in the previous session.

On a day of light economic news, data published by the European Central Bank showed that the Eurozone current account surplus increased in January driven by higher surpluses on goods and services.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is adding 0.51 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, is gaining 0.40 percent.

The CAC 40 index is gaining 0.46 percent.

Sanofi is gaining 1.5 percent and Lafarge is up 1.2 percent.

Accor and Air Liquide are gaining over 1 percent each.

Other markets in the region are also trading higher.

The Asian stocks rebounded after U.S. stocks posted solid gains overnight shrugging off concerns about Federal Reserve policy. Trading was relatively subdued as the Japanese market was closed in observance of Vernal Equinox Day.

In the U.S., futures point to a higher open on Wall Street. In the previous session, stocks recouped early losses to close higher as investors reacted favorably to a batch of economic reports, including a report on jobless claims which held near a three-month low last week. The Dow rose 0.7 percent, the Nasdaq gained 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 added 0.6 percent.

Crude for April delivery is gaining $0.12 to $99.02 per barrel, while gold is rising $8.8 to $1339.3 a troy ounce.