By Dow Jones Newswires Staff
Friday's key focus will be the U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index, the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation. Investors will be hoping that the delayed September report will provide some much-needed clarity on the Fed's rate path after a string of mixed economic signals and questions around the health of the jobs market. The Fed is widely expected to cut by 25 basis points next week.
Ahead of that, U.S. stock futures were up after a mixed close to Thursday's session and international stock markets mostly rose. U.S. Treasury yields eased a touch after Thursday's run up even as Japanese yields continued to hit multi-year highs.
--U.S. futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.3%, futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.1% while those tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq were up 0.4%. Changes in futures don't necessarily predict movements after the opening bell.
--In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 climbed 0.2% with similar gains in national bourses, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was also up 0.2% in early trade.
--Stock markets in Asia mostly rose, with the exception of Japan. Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 0.6%, China's benchmark Shanghai Composite gained 0.7%
--Chinese AI chip company Moore Threads surged nearly 500% on its Shanghai debut, and South Korea's Kospi ended up 1.8%. Japan's Nikkei, though, fell 1.1%, with global cybersecurity company Trend Micro the biggest faller.
--The 10-year Japanese government bond yield hit an 18-year high, driven by continued expectations for the Bank of Japan's rate increase later this month and persistently high inflation. Government data showed earlier Friday that household spending fell 3.0% in October from a year earlier, undershooting an expected rise of 1.0%. The 10-year JGB yield earlier rose half a basis point to 1.940%, its highest level since July 2007. The yen strengthened 0.4% against the dollar to Y154.55.
--Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury yields edged lower to reverse some of Thursday's increases that were driven by better-than-expected jobless claims data.
U.S. Treasury yields were recently down around one basis point across maturities, with the 10-year yield declining 1.4 basis points to 4.093%, according to Tradeweb data.
--The U.S. dollar eased ahead of the PCE print. Core PCE data will be particularly important ahead of the Fed's Wednesday meeting, Hargreaves Lansdown's Emma Wall said in a note. If the inflation print is higher than expected, the Fed could keep rates on hold, she said, while if it eases in line with expectations or below, that paves the way for another rate cut as anticipated, she said. The DXY dollar index against a basket of major currencies was recently down 0.1% to 98.846.
--Bitcoin rose modestly. "Despite the recent volatility, bitcoin's underlying narrative remains little changed and institutional adoption continues to broaden," BCA Research strategist Artem Sakhbiev said in a note. Bitcoin was recently up 0.1% to $92,258, according to LSEG data. It hit a two-week high of $94,082 Thursday and a one-week low of $83,873 on Monday.
--In commodities, crude oil benchmarks and gold were little changed to start Friday, though oil was on track for a weekly gain.
Write to Barcelona Editors at barcelonaeditors@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-05-25 0430ET
