China’s big stimulus steps helped keep global stocks near record highs on Friday, while the yen firmed sharply against the dollar after Japan’s former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba looked set to become the next prime minister.
Ishiba, who won a closely fought contest in his fifth, and what he called final, attempt to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has said the Bank of Japan was on the “right policy track” by ending negative rates. The dollar was last down 1.2% against the yen at 143.03 yen, while futures tracking the Nikkei stock index dropped about 5%.
“We think there is further upside but a lot will depend on the specific details in the coming days around the fiscal stimulus,” said Kiran Ganesh, multi-asset strategist at UBS Global Wealth Management. But oil was set for heavy weekly losses on a report that Saudi Arabia was preparing to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 a barrel for crude as it gets ready to increase output.
Money markets priced in an 80% chance of an ECB rate cut in October from around 20% early this week and 60% before the data.
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