London — The euro’s surge to an almost two-year high dominated financial markets on Friday, with most major stock exchanges consolidating after a second strong week of gains while those in mainland Europe dipped. Investors seem largely to have got over a period of jitters spurred by concern over the pace of US economic growth and signs that several of the world’s major central banks were determined to tighten monetary policy soon. Thursday’s meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) did just enough to show eurozone policy makers were on course to rein in their two-year old emergency programme of bond-buying without quite scaring the horses. The euro surged to its highest against the dollar since August 2015, but government bond yields for Europe’s southern governments fell sharply — a reflection of relative confidence in the economic outlook and the cautious line taken by ECB chief Mario Draghi. Eurozone stock markets, however, were lower on the day, with some analysts worrying a s...
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