European stocks are set to open mixed this morning, with investors focused on strong first quarter economic data from Germany as the region's benchmark test multi-year highs.

Britain's FTSE 100 is expected to open modestly lower, according to financial bookmakers IG, as the strength of the pound continues to cap gains for a benchmark in which nearly 75% of constituency revenues come from outside of the United Kingdom.

In Europe, however, investors are expecting another positive open at the bell after data showing Germany's economy grew at the fastest rate in more than a year in the first quarter as the engine room of the European recovery expands at a faster pace than both the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Germany GDP was estimated to have expanded at a 0.6% clip in the first three months of the year, according to Destatis, up from a 0.% pace in the final quarter of last year and largely in-line with analysts' estimates. When compared to the same period last year, the economy -- Europe's largest -- grew by 1.7%.

Overnight in Asia, the dollar pulled back from 8-week high against the yen to trade at around 113.7. The rising U.S. dollar had been supporting gains for the Nikkei 225 since France's Presidential elections earlier this month, as investors unwound positions in the yen and put on more risky bets in the wake of Emmanuel Macron's decisive win, although the benchmark slipped below the 20,000 mark Friday as investors books profits after a solid week.

The region-wide MSCI Asia ex-Japan index was also softer in Friday trading, as the downside momentum from Wall Street yesterday filtered through and investors stepped away from multi-year highs, clipping the benchmark to -0.11% by 06:45 BST.

Must of the market reticence in both Europe and Asia is linked to the fallout from this week's political drama in Washington, which started with the surprise firing of FBI Director James Comey and continues with rising tensions between the White House, Senate Democrats and intelligence officials over the nature of the decision and what it will mean for the Bureau's ongoing investigation of Trump's ties to Moscow.

That said, yesterday's reading of the labor market, which showed jobless claims falling, and producer prices, which showed input prices rising, does suggest solid underlying fundamentals in the world's largest economy that could carry it past the 2% annual growth rate investors are currently anticipating.

Further evidence of that resilience, in the form of retail sales and consumer prices, will come with data releases later in the session.

At present, however, investors seem prepared to end the week on a cautious note, with U.S. equity futures prices pointing to a 27 point, to 0.13, decline for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, following on from Thursday's 0.11% slip, with similar percentage declines forecast for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.