World stocks hit a two-week low on Friday as rate hike guidance from the European Central Bank and jitters over upcoming US inflation data stoked concerns about global growth, while verbal intervention from Japan boosted the yen The ECB said on Thursday it would deliver its first interest rate rise since 2011 next month, followed by a potentially larger move in September. Analysts at Deutsche and Morgan Stanley lifted their euro zone rate hike forecasts on Friday.
’s world equity index fell 0.22% to its lowest since May 26, and was heading for a 2% fall for the week. US stock index futures ticked up 0.19% after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell more than 2% on Thursday in their biggest daily percentage declines since mid-May. European stocks fell 1.1% to three-week lows. It was the 17th week in a row of outflows for European equities in the week to Wednesday, according to BofA, with $2.
’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.9%, weighed down by a 1.2% drop in resources-heavy Australia and a 1.1% retreat in South Korea Japan’s Nikkei fell 1.5%. However, continued strong buying by foreign investors and cautious hopes of regulatory easing on tech firms lifted China stocks, despite news that the cities of Beijing and Shanghai were back on Covid-19 alert. China’s blue-chip CSI300 index was up 1.5%, while Hong Kong shares trimmed earlier losses to be off 0.2%.