European Equities: mild bloodbath across the board; FTSE 100 'O.K.'

Today's trading session has ended on a negative tone for European indexes as the FTSE 100 trading at 7180.66, up +0.27% on the day, having posted a daily high at 7181.51 and low at 7150.76. Later the IBEX 35 trading at 9496.30, down -0.17% having posted a daily high at 9533.50 and low at 9420.20, then the DAX trading at 11805.98, down -0.36% having posted a daily high at 11844.68 and low at 11802.30, and finally the CAC 40 trading at 4838.65, down -0.59% on the day, having posted a daily high at 4867.31 and low at 4829.70.

Car-makers in red
Nasdaq reports, "European equities were mainly lower on Friday morning as car-makers retreated, oil prices traded in the red and the annual rate of change in Germany's import prices fell to a seven-year-low. Import prices in the Eurozone's largest economy contracted by 3.1% on an annual average in 2016 compared with 2015, data published by Germany's federal statistics agency Destatis showed. This was the lowest annual drop since 2009, when import prices slid by 8.5% from the prior year."

Cold water on Europe's bond-backed 'safe assets'
Reuters reports, "Germany voiced skepticism on Friday about a European Union proposal to create "safe" assets backed by euro zone sovereign bonds, arguing there are better ways to break the link between banks and governments that exacerbated the financial crisis."

The report continues, "The idea of a "synthetic" euro zone bond -- effectively a portfolio of different government bonds -- was aimed at overcoming German resistance to the issue of joint debt. But a spokeswoman for Germany's finance ministry poured cold water on the proposal on Friday, questioning whether there would be demand for the junior tranches of the new asset."

GBP/USD rallies above H1 100-SMA; US GDP down to 1.9%