Asia
Markets in the Asia-Pacific region retreated on Friday after a relatively upbeat week. Technology shares in the region fell after global chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor (2330) lost 6% of its value. A hesitant performance on Wall Street this week, despite reasonably positive earnings releases so far, also added to the uncertain mood. Hong Kong, South Korea and Japanese listed tech firms bore the brunt of the wider selloff. China’s Shanghai Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng were the worst performing benchmarks in percentage terms.
Europe
UK markets responded to different dynamics from the rest of the world. City economists had expected an interest rate rise from the Bank of England on May 10. Wednesday’s drop in inflation – which still remains above the 2% target – was followed by comments by Governor Carney playing down the prospect of a hike.
The pound, which eyed 1.44 against the dollar at the start of the week, was hovering above 1.40 on Friday. Since the Brexit vote sterling weakness has supported the largely dollar-earning companies of the FTSE 100. So it proved today, with the FTSE 100 moving up to 7,354 points, levels last seen since early February. After a strong rise on Thursday, when it was revealed that there are two suitors for Shire (SHP), the pharmaceutical company’s shares went into reverse on Friday.
Eurozone exchanges were mixed but the trend was for marginal gains overall.
North America
Wall Street has had a choppy week as earning season began moved up a gear. US markets are expected to fall at the open today, but to end the week higher than at the start.
With major banks out of the way, attention now turns to technology – a sector which has been overshadowed by the Facebook (FB) data scandal and the subsequent appearance of Mark Zuckerberg before senators.
Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) reports after the market closes on Monday, Facebook and Amazon (AMZN) on Wednesday.
Global investors are also focusing on rising oil prices ahead of a meeting of the OPEC cartel on Friday.
Canada’s Consumer Price Index for March is in view on Friday before the Toronto Stock Exchange opens – the rise in cost of living in the country is expected to have moved up to 2.4% on the year.
:quality(80)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/morningstar/DJVWK4TWZBCJZJOMX425TEY2KQ.png)
