Global markets calmer as they approach the end of a roller-coaster week
Traders are wondering, though, whether the calm will last, with ructions in Italian politics, US-China trade talks, and fallout from Trump dumping the Iranian nuclear deal
London — Calm returned to world markets on Friday, after a roller-coaster week in which oil broke $80 a barrel, government borrowing costs jumped and emerging markets were battered by a pumped-up dollar. Traders were wondering whether it would all flare up again, with Italian politics unsettled, the US and China locked in trade talks and President Donald Trump’s decision to dump the Iran nuclear deal still causing fallout. European stocks were 0.3% lower, but with the euro near a five-month low following the dollar’s surge and oil shares gleeful about its rapid rise, the region was heading for an eighth straight week of gains. Slowing Japanese core consumer price growth, which kept the Bank of Japan’s elusive 2% target well out of reach, prompted the dollar to hit a four-month high of ¥111, though it had stalled elsewhere. Italian government bonds continued their struggles too. They have suffered their biggest sell-off in more than a year this week over plans being floated by a prop...
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