Asia
This week’s steady progress in China and Hong Kong Markets suffered an upset at the end of the week with reversals of 1.5% on the previous day’s close. The Shanghai Composite Index dipped back below the key 2,600 points level after a shortlived push towards 2,700 earlier in the week.
Having overcome some of the anxieties over the trade war between the US and China, traders are now focusing on China’s domestic economy: retail sales and industrial production missed forecasts in November.
Europe
Markets in the UK and Eurozone were nursing losses of more than 1% on Friday. Weaker services data in Europe for December reflected the impact of the social unrest in France, while manufacturing data also disappointed. The December data is provisional.
In its final meeting of the year, the European Central Bank lowered inflation and economic growth forecasts for this and next year.
The FTSE 100 joined in the global sell-off with a loss of 1% on the day to just above 6,800 points. But the index’s losses were trimmed by another drop in the pound as Prime Minister Theresa May failed to make progress with EU leaders. Housebuilders and miners were lower.
North America
Stock futures are forecasting a sharp fall at the open on Friday after the abrupt change of sentiment in Asia and Europe today.
US retail sales figures are due today, and again the figures are expected to point to a slackening in growth. October’s 0.8% rise is forecast to drop to a gain of just 0.1%.
Data out yesterday showed that weekly jobless claims were not as a high as expected in the week to December 8. However, continuing claims were higher than forecast and higher than the previous period.
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