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The Breakfast Briefing: Global Stocks Stay On Track For Weekly Rise
FYI: Stocks edged higher Friday and were on course to close out another week of gains despite a backdrop of mixed economic data from major global economies.
U.S. futures put the S&P 500 on course for a 0.2% gain at the open, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq-100 set to climb 0.3%.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was up 0.2% in opening trading, with shallow gains for the technology and energy sectors mostly balanced by small losses for the index’s banks.
The British pound paused in its recent moves against the U.S. dollar, although remained 1.7% higher so far this week. The U.K.’s parliament in recent days voted both to rule out leaving the European Union without a withdrawal deal and in favor of an extension to the current Brexit deadline of March 29.
The FTSE 100 was up 0.4%, with the U.K. benchmark tending to move inversely to sterling.
Small opening gains in Europe followed upbeat trading in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.8%.
The Bank of Japan surprised few investors by leaving interest rates unchanged while also maintaining purchases of Japanese government bonds. The yield on 10-year Japanese government bonds had last risen to -0.35% from -0.42% late Thursday.
The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of 16 others, was last down 0.1%, extending its losses over the past five trading sessions to 0.5%. Regards, Ted
