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World stocks were on course for their best week since March 2021
and oil for its biggest weekly gain since late August, helped by
signs the Omicron coronavirus variant might not be as
economically disruptive as feared.
But markets were cautious on Friday ahead of November's U.S.
consumer price index data, due at 1330 GMT.
A Reuters poll of economists expects CPI to have risen 6.8%
year-on-year, overtaking October's 6.2% increase, which was the
fastest gain in 31 years.
"It's likely the base number won't look great, it's quite a rise
expected compared to previous months," said Matthias Scheiber,
global head of portfolio management at Allspring Global
Investments.
However, Scheiber said other indicators such as supply chain
statistics suggested inflation could stabilise in the medium
term.
There was also gloom about the Omicron variant in Europe after
England introduced more restrictions this week.
S&P 500 futures rose 0.4%, however, clawing back a little ground
after the index fell 0.72% on Thursday.
The MSCI world equities index fell 0.19% though it was heading
for a 2.5% gain on the week.
European stocks were down 0.14% but poised for a weekly rise of
3%. Britain's FTSE 100 was steady after data showed Britain's
economy grew by a weaker-than-expected 0.1% in October.
European and U.S. stock market volatility indices, meanwhile,
were set to show their second biggest weekly drop this year.
Oil prices were on course to rise more than 6% this week on
easing concerns over the impact of the Omicron coronavirus
variant on global growth and fuel demand.
U.S. crude rose 0.97% to $71.64 a barrel. Brent crude rose 0.85%
to $75.05. [O/R]
The dollar index rose 0.2% and was heading towards its seventh
consecutive weekly rise, its longest rising streak since
mid-2014. The euro was down 0.2% at $1.127.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields picked up to 1.5179% and the
two-year yield rose to 0.7310%, its highest since March 2020,
before trimming gains.
Ten-year German government bond yields ticked up to -0.335%.
Any upside inflation surprise will likely be interpreted as a
case for a faster Fed taper and bring forward expectations for
interest rate rises.
"The process we're embarking on, which is to withdraw what has
been a record amount of liquidity and monetary support, is a
tricky one, particularly as we're at a point where you've got
heightened inflationary pressures and the economy is running hot
in a number of countries," said Francesca Fornasari, head of FX
at Insight Investment.
In addition to the inflation data, University of Michigan
preliminary December sentiment data at 1500 GMT is forecast to
dip to 67.1 versus 67.4 in November.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost
0.76%, snapping three days of gains and Japan's Nikkei shed
1.0%.
Shares in China Evergrande Group lost 1.67% after Fitch
downgraded it to restricted default status.
Contagion was limited, however, with Hong Kong stocks off 1.07%.
Gold dipped 0.17% to $1,771.9 an ounce [GOL/].
(Additional reporting by Alun John in Hong Kong and Sujata Rao
in London; editing by Sam Holmes, Richard Pullin, Catherine
Evans and Barbara Lewis)
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