By Harry Robertson and Lawrence Delevingne
LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) -Global stocks rose on Friday at the end of a volatile week for markets, with sentiment buoyed by Apple’s earnings report and an in-line U.S. inflation reading.
Meanwhile, currency traders braced for U.S. President Donald Trump to put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico as a Saturday deadline neared, a move that could disrupt nearly $1.6 trillion in annual trade.
The U.S. S&P 500 stock index rose 0.6% and was on track to end the week broadly flat, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq climbed 1.2% but was set to end the week slightly lower.
The Nasdaq dropped 2.9% on Monday as the surging popularity of cheap Chinese AI model DeepSeek shook investor confidence in U.S. tech stocks and sent chipmaker Nvidia plunging 17%.
Earnings reports and forecasts this week from the likes of Meta and Tesla have helped sentiment recover somewhat.
Apple added to the cautiously optimistic mood late on Thursday when it forecast relatively strong sales growth, pushing its stock up about 0.5% in Friday trading.
Europe’s continent-wide Stoxx 600 index was last up 0.1%, with tech shares up 1.7%.
In currency markets, options contracts showed investors were preparing for the potential for swings in the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso. The Canadian dollar was last up around 0.16% on the day and the peso was 0.5% higher in choppy trading.
Trump has set a Saturday deadline to impose punitive duties over his demands that Canada and Mexico take stronger action to halt the flow of illegal immigrants and the deadly opioid fentanyl and precursor chemicals into the United States.
“There is big market complacency in terms of the manner that the market could digest the tariffs,” said Michael Nizard, multi-asset chief investment officer at Edmond de Rothschild.
The U.S. dollar index was little changed on the day but on track for a small weekly gain. The euro and sterling were both muted.
Data on Friday showed the U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.3% last month after an unrevised 0.1% gain in November, in line with economists’ expectations.
“Disinflation continues, and should continue given underlying trends,” David Alcaly, lead macroeconomic strategist at Lazard Asset Management, said in an email.
“Concerns about recent bumpiness are overblown and have more to do with the potential for inflationary policy change like tariffs than with current conditions.”
The figures also showed consumer spending surged, briefly pushing up 10-year Treasury yields, which were last little changed at 4.525%.
Yields, which move inversely to prices, are on track to fall more than 10 basis points across the week, largely reflecting investor buying as tech stocks fell on Monday.
Data on Thursday showed U.S. economic growth slowed in the fourth quarter, but remained robust enough for investors to expect the Federal Reserve – which held interest rates on Wednesday – to lower borrowing costs only gradually this year.
German bond yields fell for a second day after weaker than expected underlying inflation data. The European Central Bank cut rates on Thursday and signalled more easing was coming.
Brent crude oil futures were flat at $76.86 per barrel, set for a weekly decline.
(Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston and Harry Robertson in London. Additional reporting by Iain Withers and Ankur Banerjee. Editing by Mark Potter, William Maclean and Barbara Lewis)
