London — European and US stocks looked to end a sluggish week on a high note on Friday, while the dollar was on track for its biggest weekly fall in two months and US bond yields eyed their longest run of weekly declines since July. Investors largely shrugged off figures that showed Chinese exports fell the most last year since 2009, and will look to earnings reports from US banks JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo later in the day for direction. "The banking sector will be the major focus," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK. "With rising interest rates and hopes of more friendly regulation, the shares of these banks have a lot of upside in the coming days." Bank stocks led the charge in European trading, rising 1% to lift the FTSEuroFirst 300 0.5%. The broader index was still down slightly on the week though, its first weekly fall in six. Shares in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles rose 6%, recouping some of the previous session’s 16% sl...
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