• The euro slipped for a second day on Friday, on track for its biggest weekly loss of the year on the back of falling bond yields after the European Central Bank extended its bond buying well into next year.
The euro fell $1.1626 in early trades and is on track to post its biggest weekly loss since the fourth quarter of 2016. Benchmark 10-year German bond yields were at0.43 percent, well in sight of a 1-1/2 month low of 0.36 percent hit last week.
• The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, added 0.2 percent to 94.800, trading at three-month highs and on track for a weekly gain of 1.1 percent.
Investor attention remains on candidates to head the U.S. Federal Reserve when Janet Yellen’s term expires in February.
Trump’s search for the next central bank chair has come down to Fed Governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economist John Taylor, Politico on Thursday cited one source as saying. A White House official told Reuters that no final decision has been made.
Trump is expected to announce his candidate before his trip to Asia in early November.
• U.S. economic growth probably slowed in the third quarter as hurricanes Harvey and Irma restrained consumer spending and undercut construction activity, but underlying momentum likely remained strong amid robust business investment on equipment.
According to a Reuters survey of economists, gross domestic product likely increased at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the July-September period after a brisk 3.1 percent pace in the second quarter.
The Commerce Department will publish its first estimate of third-quarter GDP growth on Friday at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT). Without the hurricane-related disruptions, economists say third-quarter GDP growth would have either matched or beat the pace set in the April-June quarter.
• The Treasury Department on Thursday issued sanctions on seven individuals and three entities connected to North Korea after a new State Department report on human rights abuses by Kim Jon Un's regime.
"Today's sanctions target the North Korean military and regime officials engaged in flagrant abuses of human rights. We also are targeting North Korean financial facilitators who attempt to keep the regime afloat with foreign currency earned through forced labor operations." Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
• Euro zone inflation could be higher than earlier expected in five years’ time, the European Central Bank’s survey of professional forecasters showed on Friday, partly underpinning the ECB’s decision to curb stimulus a day earlier.
Price growth is seen rising to 1.9 percent by 2022, in line with the ECB’s target and above the 1.8 percent predicted three months ago, according to the survey of 58forecasters, an important input in the ECB’s policy deliberations.
The survey now sees growth at 1.9 percent in 2018 and 1.7 percent in 2019, both 0.1 percentage point higher than three months ago. But longer term growth, defined as expansion in 2022, is still seen at 1.6 percent.
Unemployment is now seen falling faster than earlier thought with 2018, 2019 and longer term forecasts all cut by 0.2 percentage point.
• The world's second-largest economy announced its new leadership lineup on Wednesday after a week of closed-door meetings and internal voting. That lineup saw Xi once again at the top of the country's ruling party, and it was notable for the lack of an heir-apparent — indicating that Xi was not ceding any of his authority anytime soon.
• Profits earned by China's industrial firms in September surged 27.7 percent from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said on Friday, accelerating from a 24 percent rise in August.
Industrial profits increased 22.8 percent in the first nine months of 2017 from the same period last year, versus a 21.6 percent rise in January-August.
China's long-ailing industrial sector has seen a sharp turnaround this year as a building boom boosts demand and factory-gate prices, producing the strongest profits in years and giving them more room to start tackling a mountain of debt.
• Oil prices held steady on Friday, with Brent crude hovering near $60 a barrel, buoyed by comments from Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince backing the extension of OPEC-led output cuts.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 were at $52.61 per barrel, down 3 cents, or 0.06 percent, from their last close, but up by a quarter from their June 2017 low.
WTI has been weaker relative to Brent as rising U.S. output has capped prices in the United States.
Reference: Reuters
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