BANGKOK — European shares opened mostly higher on Friday following a broad retreat in Asia as investors watched for updates from U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ‘s visit to Beijing.
U.S. futures were little changed and oil prices were modestly higher.
Yellen is meeting with senior Chinese officials to try to soothe antagonisms over a host of issues and promote global financial stability. Speaking with business people, she criticized China’s treatment of U.S. companies and new export controls on metals used in semiconductors, while defending U.S. controls on technology exports that irk Beijing, saying they’re necessary for national security.
U.S. officials have said they do not expect a breakthrough during Yellen’s visit.
Germany’s DAX gained 0.2% to 15,551.91 while the CAC 40 advanced 0.3% to 7,101.70. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 0.3%.
The futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 were 0.1% lower. On Thursday, the Dow dropped 1.1% and the S&P 500 lost 0.8%. The Nasdaq composite gave up 0.8%.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 1.2% to 32,388.42 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong dropped 0.9% to 18,365.70. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 3,196.61, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 sank 1.7% to 7,042.30.
India’s Sensex sank 0.6% and Bangkok’s SET index was little changed.
A jobs report Friday will likely have a much bigger impact on Wall Street than anything else this week.
While a sturdy U.S. labor market keeps the economy out of a long-feared recession, it could also push the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates higher for longer in its campaign to defeat high inflation. That in turn could mean more pressure down the line on the economy and financial markets worldwide.
A report Thursday from ADP Research Institute suggested hiring by American private employers was much stronger last month than economists expected, with nearly twice as many jobs created than forecast.
Another report showed the number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment last week remains low relative to history, even if it was a bit higher than expected.
The Federal Reserve has raised its federal funds rate by 5 percentage points from virtually zero in the past year, trying to smother the worst inflation in decades by slowing the entire economy.
“As the growth trajectory of the U.S. economy improves, it becomes increasingly more challenging to envision what would cause the Fed to CUT rates anytime soon, as many market participants have been anticipating,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Yields jumped in the bond market as traders ramped up bets for the Fed to keep rates higher for longer than previously expected. Hopes for a potential cut to interest rates by early next year diminished.
In other trading Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil added 22 cents to $72.02 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gained 1 cent to $71.80 on Thursday.
Brent crude, the pricing basis for international trading, picked up 18 cents to $76.70 per barrel.
The dollar slipped to 143.06 Japanese yen from 144.06 yen. The euro rose to $1.0888 from $1.0890.
