Asia
The link between the performance of US and Asia equities has not always been predictable in recent weeks, but Thursday’s lower close on Wall Street dragged down markets in Asia-Pacific on Friday.
With doubts now creeping in over the likelihood of Senate passing the all-important tax reform bill, global markets were generally lower on Friday morning.
Japan’s Nikkei drifted back to the mid 22,500 points level after a recent attempt to move through the 23,000 resistance level.
Europe
With sterling rising on renewed hopes for progress in Brexit talks, the FTSE 100 failed to make any progress on Friday morning. Segro (SGRO) was one of the biggest risers on a broker upgrade and project news. An announcement of channel-sharing between sports broadcasting rivals Sky (SKY) and (BT.) sent both companies’ shares higher.
Britain’s largest housebuilder Persimmon (PSN) is in the doldrums on news that its chairman has resigned after failing to cap a £128 million bonus for the chief executive, Jeff Fairburn. Shares in listed housebuilder have rallied sharply since the vote to leave the European Union, amid further government stimulus for the housing market.
Exchanges in the eurozone were lower approaching midday.
North America
The economics calendar is light after this week’s key inflation, retail sales and interest rate news, but US industrial production figures for November will be released on Friday. Next week’s data will focus on home sales, plus the third estimate of Q3 GDP is expected to show a revision higher to 3.4%.
After hours on Thursday, shares Costco (COST), Adobe (ADBE) rose after earnings numbers were published. Oracle (ORCL) shed over 6% in after-market trading as cloud sales growth missed forecasts.
Despite Thursday’s lower close, futures suggest that US stock markets are due to rise at the open on Friday.
Canadian inflation and GDP numbers will be published towards the end of the week.
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