China’s commerce ministry said on Friday the European Union has continued to escalate trade friction, which “may trigger a trade war.”
Japan’s yen is weakening rapidly again too – with doubts about the timing of Bank of Japan tightening reinforced by below-forecast inflation numbers that saw consumer price growth excluding energy and fresh food falling to just 2.1% last month.
That has sent dollar/yen back above 159 for the first time since late April, when the BoJ last intervened to cap it, and elicited another series of warnings from Japanese officials.
With the Swiss National Bank’s second interest rate cut of the year on Thursday ringing in the background, the dollar climbed against European currencies too.
Sterling fell to its lowest level in over a month even after the Bank of England left its policy rates steady ahead of the July 4 UK election, as bets on an August rate cut there rose when the BoE indicated that its 7-2 policy-maker split in favour of holding the line was “finely balanced”.
News of a rebound in British retail sales last month after a weather-related bust in April did little to shift the dial.
And the euro sank back to the lows it hit last week on France’s political upheaval, with June business surveys for the euro zone showing a sharper slowdown in activity there than forecast.
The currency bloc’s services industry showed signs of weakening while a downturn in manufacturing took a turn for the worse.
Back on Wall Street, equivalent S&P Global surveys for the United States are due out later on Friday.
S&P500 futures were marginally in the red ahead of the bell.
Elsewhere, China imposed countermeasures on Lockheed Martin’s <LMT.N> relevant entities and senior executives on Friday over the United States’ arms sales to Taiwan.
And Britain’s financial technology firm Revolut could be valued at north of $40 billion in a share sale, even as it still awaits a UK banking licence, according to people familiar with the situation.
