london european stocks are set for a muted open on friday continuing to search for direction as global investors assess recent high inflation prints and corporate earnings britains ftse 100 is seen around 3 points lower at 7381 germanys dax is set to add around 5 points to 16088 and frances cac 40 is expected to slip around 4 points to 7056 according to ig data historic inflation surges in the us and china have weighed on global markets so far this week but european markets are still looking to eke out gains going into fridays trade a reuters poll of economists on thursday indicated that euro zone inflation expectations are also at risk of continuing to overshoot the european central banks 2 target in 2022 euro zone inflation topped 4 last month but the ecb has broken from other major central banks by resisting calls for a tightening of monetary policy shares in asiapacific mostly rose on friday following overnight gains for us tech stocks during thursdays regular trading session early premarket trading points to a modestly positive start on wall street friday as the stock market stateside looks to have withstood the countrys highest inflation print for more than 30 years