Spain's IBEX 35 stock index opened almost unchanged on Friday and was on track to close the week higher, as markets turned their attention to US employment data due later in the day and the second round of parliamentary elections in France.

Forecasts point to a slowdown in hiring and a slight uptick in unemployment in the US, which would leave the door open to a Fed rate cut.

"If this slowdown is confirmed, it would serve, together with weak ISM data, both manufacturing and services, to reinforce the idea of two rate cuts by the Fed in the second half of 2024, the first in September (70% probability of -25 bps)," said Renta 4 analysts in a note to clients.

According to interest rate futures on LSEG's IRPR tool, markets currently put the odds of a Fed rate cut in September at 72%, up from last week's levels following data releases that pointed to weakness in the US economy.

Eyes are also on France, where investors are awaiting the results of the second round of parliamentary elections, with a possible victory for the far-right National Rally (RN) party, albeit without an absolute majority, according to an OpinionWay poll for the business daily Les Echos published on Friday.

"The market has been softening its reaction to the RN's victory in the first round as it has been sensing that the RN might not achieve an absolute majority, which should moderate fears about a substantial increase in public spending that would compromise the sustainability of French public accounts," added Renta 4.

In the UK, Keir Starmer promised to bring change as the next prime minister after his Labour Party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, ending 14 years of Conservative government.

At 0710 GMT on Friday, Spain's selective IBEX 35 stock market index was up 12.90 points, or 0.12%, to 11,079.20 points, while in weekly terms the index was pointing to a rise of 1.26%.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of large European stocks advanced by 0.29%.

In the banking sector, Santander lost 0.11%, BBVA fell 0.02%, Caixabank gave up 0.90%, Sabadell fell 0.34%, Bankinter dropped 0.62%, and Unicaja Banco lost 0.46%.

Among the large non-financial stocks, Telefónica gained 0.13%, Inditex advanced 0.46%, Iberdrola gained 0.38%, Cellnex gained 0.26%, and the oil company Repsol lost 0.31%.

(Information by Benjamín Mejías Valencia; edited by Tomás Cobos)