Morning Bid: AI woes and 'open war'

A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Rocky Swift

Concerns about technology company valuations established a risk-off tone that has only gotten worse as it is compounded by geopolitical woes. 

Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia delivered what looked to be stellar results, but for a sector priced for perfection, they weren't good enough.

Japan's yen and U.S. Treasuries, traditional haven assets, advanced while crude prices edged up.

In the shadow of U.S. President Donald Trump's threat of strikes against Iran, an Omani mediator of the nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran gave an optimistic readout over the latest round of negotiations, but the two sides remain far apart.

In other hotspots, Pakistan's "cup of patience" with Afghanistan reached its limit, resulting in overnight bombings of Taliban government targets and declarations of "open China's military accused the Philippines of "disrupting" peace and stability by organising joint patrols with countries outside the region.

And in the skies over Texas, the U.S. military used lasers to shoot down a drone deployed by the government of ... the United States

The day also started off badly for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, after his Labour Party suffered an electoral defeat in an area of Greater Manchester that it had dominated for almost a century 

..Equity futures pointed to mixed opens in Europe. The pan-region Euro Stoxx 50 futures were up 0.03% at 6,172, German DAX futures were flat at 25,314, FTSE futures were up 0.21% at 10,856.5.

U.S. stock futures, the S&P 500 e-minis , were down 0.24% at 6,903.3.

Key developments that could influence markets on Friday:

* U.S.: PPI for January, Chicago PMI for February

* France: consumer spending for January, producer prices for January, CPI for February, Q4  GDP

* Germany: unemployment for February, import prices for January, CPI for February

* Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill speaks

* Canada Q4 GDP