CAC 40 Edges Higher Ahead Of Lagarde Speech

(RTTNews) - French stocks were up slightly on Friday ahead of European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde's speech later in the day.

She will be speaking for the second time this week after cautioning that cutting interest rates too soon could threaten Europe's progress in battling the inflation.

The benchmark CAC 40 was up 24 points, or 0.3 percent, at 7,425 after rallying 1.1 percent in the previous session.

In the currency markets, the British pound fell against the euro, dollar and other currencies after data showed British retailers suffered the biggest drop in sales for almost three years during December.

Elsewhere, German producer prices declined for the sixth straight month in December due to cheaper energy costs.