Asia
Again the Bank of Japan didn’t disappoint the status quo by keeping interest rates on hold but dropped the date when the country will reach its 2% inflation target. After five years of chasing the target, the BoJ has pushed the goal into the long grass as weak price growth seems to have become the norm.
Asia-Pacific markets, after a number of choppy trading sessions, took part in the optimism sparked by a stronger close on Wall Street and some encouragement from Amazon’s results.
Europe
The standout news this week in the UK is that the economy grew by just 0.1% in the first quarter of 2018. While the Office for National Statistics said that snow disruption was a factor, it was not the main driver of the very weak growth. Construction sector weakness was seen as the culprit this quarter. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney recently caused controversy by warning that a May interest rate rise was not a “done deal” that the money markets had assumed. But today’s news took currency traders by surprise, leading to the pound being sold off against the dollar from 1.39 to 1.38. Carney is speaking in London today at an event so his comments will be more than closely attended to than usual.
FTSE 100 shares took the gift from falling sterling and joined in the global rally after US and Asia markets closed higher.
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shares slipped nearly 2% despite a rise in profits in the quarter just gone. The share price dropped to 269p, significantly below the 502p the government would need to break even on its bailout 10 years ago.
Germany's Dax was the best of the eurozone exchanges on Friday lunchtime.
North America
Stellar results from Amazon (AMZN) have kept the tech bandwagon going during an earnings season that has defied the fears of a crisis among America’s most high profile technology firms. Next week Apple (AAPL) is the last of the tech giants to report.
Today sees oil giants Exxon (XOM) and Chevron (CVX) report earnings.
US GDP will be in focus on Friday – while the first quarter growth is not expected to be as robust as that seen in the fourth quarter, the growth rate will outshine many developed economies, especially with the extra stimulus from tax cuts starting to feed through.