Rio Tinto PLC and L’Oreal SA stood out among the early gainers.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index XX:SXXP -0.02% was flat at 287.43, after finishing with a 0.5% gain the prior session, which was lifted by a round of strong corporate earnings in Europe and encouraging U.S. economic data.
It was China’s turn to provide the big data on Friday. Amid a clutch of reports was news that the economy grew 7.9% in the fourth quarter versus a year earlier, inching past forecasts and fueling optimism that the worst may be over for the country
