Global stocks on Friday mostly held onto gains made earlier this week on expectations of a cut to US interest rates.\n<\/p>\n
Wall Street\u2019s S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indices struck fresh record highs during morning trading.\n<\/p>\n
Both indices joined the Dow Jones Industrial Average in setting all-time highs on Thursday after US inflation and jobless claims data cemented expectations that the Federal Reserve will trim borrowing costs at its meeting next week.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cStock markets (are) at record highs on hopes for falling interest rates,\u201d noted Derren Nathan, head of equity research at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown.<\/p>\n
Markets expect the Fed to cut interest rates by a quarter point next week, and make another two cuts of the same size at its two remaining meetings this year.\n<\/p>\n
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O\u2019Hare said a lack of buying conviction on Wall Street wasn\u2019t notable, but rather the lack of selling conviction despite reaching new all-time highs, which could spark concerns about potential overvaluations.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThe market is effectively riding the trend until the price action tells it to jump off that ride,\u201d said O\u2019Hare. \u201cThat message hasn\u2019t been delivered yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
European stock markets ended flat, while Asia\u2019s main indices made gains.\n<\/p>\n
There were fresh records this week also for the Tokyo and Seoul stock markets, while London on Friday neared a new all-time high, before giving up its gains and ending the day lower.\n<\/p>\n
A drop in the British pound following data showing the UK economy stalled in July had helped support equities for most of the trading session.\n<\/p>\n
Hong Kong led the way among Asia\u2019s top stock markets on Friday, closing up more than one per cent thanks to a surge of more than five per cent in the share price of Alibaba.\n<\/p>\n
The e-commerce titan\u2019s New York stock had jumped eight per cent on Thursday, helped by its latest moves in the artificial intelligence sector.\n<\/p>\n
This week also saw more record highs for the price of gold, viewed as a haven investment, following escalating tensions over the Israel-Gaza and Russia-Ukraine conflicts.\n<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s central bank on Friday trimmed its key interest rate to 17 per cent as the country risks an economic slowdown.<\/p>\n
The Bank of England is widely expected to keep its key rate on hold as elevated UK inflation offsets stagnant growth.\n<\/p>\n
The European Central Bank on Thursday held interest rates steady, with eurozone inflation under control and trade tensions having eased, even as France\u2019s political crisis presents policymakers with a fresh challenge.\n<\/p>\n
Oil prices climbed as concerns about additional sanctions targeting Russian crude exports outweighed concerns about excess supply on the market. <\/p>\n
\u2013 Key figures at around 1530 GMT \u2013\n<\/p>\n
New York \u2013 Dow: DOWN 0.4 per cent at 45,910.20 points\n<\/p>\n
New York \u2013 S&P 500: FLAT at 6,586.17\n<\/p>\n
New York \u2013 Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.4 per cent at 22,120.22<\/p>\n
London \u2013 FTSE 100: DOWN 0.2 per cent at 9,283.29 (close)\n<\/p>\n
Paris \u2013 CAC 40: FLAT at 7,825.24 (close)\n<\/p>\n
Frankfurt \u2013 DAX: FLAT at 23,698.15 (close)\n<\/p>\n
Tokyo \u2013 Nikkei 225: UP 0.9 per cent at 44,768.12 (close)\n<\/p>\n
Hong Kong \u2013 Hang Seng Index: UP 1.2 per cent at 26,388.16 (close)\n<\/p>\n
Shanghai \u2013 Composite: DOWN 0.1 per cent at 3,870.60 (close)\n<\/p>\n
Euro\/dollar: DOWN at $1.1718 from $1.1732 on Thursday<\/p>\n
Pound\/dollar: DOWN at $1.3551 from $1.3580\n<\/p>\n
Dollar\/yen: UP at 147.83 from 147.18 yen\n<\/p>\n
Euro\/pound: UP at 86.47 pence from 86.43 pence\n<\/p>\n
Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.9 per cent at $67.64 per barrel\n<\/p>\n
West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.8 per cent at $63.49\u00a0per\u00a0barrel\n<\/p>\n
AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Global stocks on Friday mostly held onto gains made earlier this week on expectations of a cut to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-419761","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115194149124304056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}