French shares eked out modest gains on Friday as investors digest a slew of earnings reports and await U.S. payrolls data due out later in the day.
U.S. employment is expected to increase by about 188,000 jobs in January after jumping by 292,000 jobs in December. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 5.0 percent. Coming after recent spate of weak U.S. economic data and dovish comments from Fed officials, the report holds global significance.
Oil prices held steady as a weaker dollar offset concerns over a global supply glut. The euro was up marginally against the dollar, a day after ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank will not surrender to low inflation.
The benchmark CAC 40 was up 29 points or 0.68 percent at 4,257 after losing 1.3 percent on Thursday in the wake of mixed earnings reports and strength in the euro.
BNP Paribas shares climbed 5 percent. The lender has unveiled plans to cut investment banking costs by 12 percent by 2019 after reporting sharply lower net profit for the fourth quarter.
Societe Generale Group added 2.5 percent, hotel group Accor gained 1.8 percent and builder Vinci jumped 2 percent.
In economic releases, France's foreign trade deficit decreased more-than-expected at the end of the year, as imports fell faster than exports, figures from the French Customs showed. The trade deficit narrowed to 3.9 billion euros in December from 4.5 billion euros in the previous month.
Elsewhere, Asian shares closed mostly higher, although Japanese shares succumbed to selling for the fourth day amid a firmer yen on concerns about slowing U.S. economic growth and growing doubts about the pace of future rate increases at the Federal Reserve.
U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly higher open as investors await the monthly jobs report for further insights into the world's largest economy and its rate policy.
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