A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan
It’s Friday, so today I’ll provide a quick overview of what’s happening in global markets and then offer you some weekend reading suggestions away from the headlines.
Today’s Market Minute
* Britain’s Heathrow Airport was shut on Friday after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out its power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.
* President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States will sign a minerals and natural resources deal with Ukraine shortly and that his efforts to achieve a peace deal for the country were going “pretty well” after his talks this week with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.
* Motorists have traded in a record number of Tesla electric vehicles this month, Edmunds data showed, amid a wave of protests against CEO Elon Musk’s work as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.
* Japan’s core inflation hit 3.0% in February and an index stripping away the effect of fuel rose at the fastest pace in nearly a year, a sign of broadening price pressure that reinforces market expectations of further interest rate hikes.
* Germany’s Bundesrat upper house of parliament is set to vote on Friday on a spending splurge aiming to revive growth in Europe’s largest economy and scale up the military for a new era of European collective defence.
Markets end week on glum note as tariffs loom
World markets turned gloomy again on Friday, now that the week’s big central bank meetings have passed and April’s planned U.S. tariffs have moved front and center.
The week’s main economic data releases were fairly benign, with existing home sales for February and weekly jobless claims showing no major disruptions.
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve’s March business survey showed sentiment ebbing, though by less than forecast. New orders readings fell sharply, however, and prices paid jumped.
But with much uncertainty about what lies ahead, the investment mood remains downbeat and upcoming first quarter corporate earnings and guidance may be a nervy affair.
FedEx dropped 5% overnight after it cut its full-year profit and revenue forecasts, with the parcel delivery giant fretting about tariff-related impacts and “continued weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy”.
Micron Technology’s revenue beat on strong demand for AI-related chips struck a more positive note, bumping its shares up 2% in after-hours trading.
But S&P 500 futures were in the red overall first thing on Friday after clocking another down day yesterday. Treasury yields were slightly lower, and the dollar was broadly firmer.
Overseas markets were in the red too, with Europe impacted by a disruption to travel stocks after a fire near London’s Heathrow airport shut down traffic for all of Friday.
Germany’s upper house of parliament is set to vote on Friday on a spending boost aimed at reviving growth in Europe’s largest economy and scaling up the military for a new era of European collective defence.
Chinese stocks lost more than 1%, but Japan’s Topix index ended the day at an eight-month high as banks gained on the country’s above-forecast inflation data.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s markets remained under pressure. Trading on the Istanbul bourse was halted for a second time on Friday as a market-wide circuit breaker kicked in after heavy declines of up to 7%.
Turkey’s lira, stocks and bonds have weakened sharply since Wednesday when authorities detained Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who is widely considered the main political rival of President Tayyip Erdogan. Protests erupted and thousands marched nationwide.
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