European shares were lower at midday on Friday in a choppy session, on track to snap a three-day winning streak, as investors await U.S. unemployment data.
By 1036 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares was down 0.2 percent at 780.06 points, having earlier been up as much as 784.98 points and down as low as 773.58 points. However, the index is still on track to make a weekly gain of 5.9 percent and is up 6.7 percent for the month.
"There is still a lot of volatility and I think these ambiguous ups and downs are typically what happens when the market is starting to turn around," said Bernard McAlinden, strategist at NCB Stockbrokers.
"We had a good day yesterday. The G20 was less vague than probably the market had been expecting and the IMF deal will be good for European equities. There has also been a lot of mixed economic data," he said.
European shares rose nearly 5 percent on Thursday after world leaders agreed to pump $1.1 trillion deal into the global economy through extra funding for groups like the IMF.
The banking sector recovered from early falls on Friday. Royal Bank of Scotland added 12.7 percent after the group said it would cut more jobs and promised a "return to paying dividends as soon as practicable".
UniCredit, Societe Generale, Barclays and Banco Santander were up 1.8-4.5 percent.
Car makers added to gains from the previous session. Stocks were also boosted by a Credit Suisse note which upgraded the sector to "overweight" from "market weight".
BMW, Daimler, Peugeot and Renault were 4.5-7.6 percent higher.
NOVO NORDISK FALLS ON DRUG CONCERNS
Miners reversed early gains as copper slipped 0.2 percent. BHP Billiton, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation and Rio Tinto fell 1.5-2.7 percent.
The oil sector also retreated with BP, BG Group and Total down 0.3-1.6 percent.
Drugmakers were in the doldrums. Novo Nordisk slumped 11.7 percent after a U.S. advisory panel failed to back its experimental diabetes drug Victoza, or liraglutide, with votes split on whether it was safe enough to come to the market due to worries over cancer.
Novartis, Roche and Sanofi Aventis were down 3.2-3.8 percent.
Investors will closely eye the U.S. non-farm payrolls at 1230 GMT, with economists in a Reuters survey forecasting 650,000 jobs lost in the month compared with 651,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate is seen at 8.5 percent, compared with 8.1 percent in the prior month.
"The (U.S.) unemployment numbers will unfortunately be relatively bad and from the point of view of psychology not good at all for stocks but it is a lagging indicator," said Thierry Lacraz, strategist at Pictet.
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index was down 0.6 percent, Germany's DAX was up 0.7 percent and France's CAC 40 was down 0.2 percent.
