World shares steadied after selling in the tech sector triggered their biggest fall in over a month, while the yen slid to a two-week low as the Bank of Japan signalled its stimulus was staying in place.
It was set to be the second week of falls for MSCI’s widely tracked world index, although Wall Street and Europe, which has been the star performer in the first half of the year, were trying to end it on an upnote.
London, Frankfurt and Paris climbed between 0.3 and 0.5 per cent, futures pointed to a stable restart for Apple and the like and euro the pound and the Swiss franc rose against the dollar in the currency market.
Greece’s 10-year government borrowing costs fell to their lowest since 2014 in bond markets as well, as euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund approved a long-delayed 8.5 billion euro lifeline for Athens, albeit keeping them hanging on for debt relief.
The Japanese yen hit a two-week low against the dollar after the Bank of Japan left its mass money printing programme unchanged, maintaining the contrast with the US Federal Reserve, which signalled further tightening this week.
It was trading 0.4 per cent lower at 111.35 yen per dollar, while the euro was buying $1.1170 compared with almost $1.13 earlier in the week.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ended down roughly 0.85 per cent for the week though for emerging markets more broadly it was looking like being the worst week of the year so far.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq whose big names like Apple and Alphabet led Wall Street lower again on Thursday after more bearish reports, pointed to a stabilisation in United States trading rather than a rebound.
US data also continues to come in mixed. US homebuilding fell to the lowest level in eight months figures showed ahead of the Wall Street restart, dampening the mood again after better-than-expected unemployment claims numbers and a survey on business conditions on Thursday.
Back in Europe, Britain’s sterling added almost 0.2 per cent to $1.2775 having jumped as high as $1.2795 the previous day after a Bank of England decision to kept UK rates at a record low was much closer than expected.
In commodities, oil remained subdued on continued worries over rising US gasoline inventories adding to already elevated global supply.
Global benchmarks Brent and US crude ticked up to $47.34 and $44.74 a barrel, on track for 2.4 and 2.8 per cent drops for the week respectively.