Stocks steady, dollar up before US jobs data
LONDON: Major stock markets largely steadied and the dollar rose Friday awaiting key US jobs data in the face of uncertainty over the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs on the economy.
Ahead of the employment figures due before Wall Street's reopening, optimism from "very positive" talks Thursday between Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was wiped out by the stunning public row between the US leader and Elon Musk.
The much-anticipated discussions between the heads of the world's biggest economies fuelled hopes for an easing of tensions following Trump's "Liberation Day" global tariff blitz that targeted Beijing particularly hard.
However, investors remained wary after an extraordinary social media row between Trump and billionaire former aide Musk that saw the two trade insults and threats and sent Wall Street into the red Thursday.
Musk's electric vehicle company Tesla tanked more than 14 percent and the president threatened his multibillion-dollar government contracts.
Asian and European stock markets mostly steadied awaiting the US jobs figures, as oil prices flatlined.
"Attention now turns to the non-farm payrolls report, which is often described as the most important individual economic release of any given month," noted Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.
A below-par reading on private hiring this week raised worries about the labour market and the outlook for the US economy.
It came amid bets that the Federal Reserve is preparing to resume cutting interest rates from September, even as economists warn that Trump's tariffs could reignite inflation.
"There remains a huge amount of uncertainty caused by the US trade tariffs," noted Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.
"If the US economy can generate decent jobs growth in this environment it would suggest an underlying resilience, which could boost stock markets, the dollar and overall risk sentiment," she added.
A day after cutting eurozone interest rates, the European Central Bank warned that Germany could face two more years of recession should a trade war with the United States escalate sharply.
For now, however, the eurozone economy is showing signs of resilience, with official data Friday showing it expanded at a significantly faster pace than previously estimated in the first three months of the year.
The EU's data agency said the 20-country single currency area recorded growth of 0.6 percent over the January-March period from the previous quarter, up from the 0.3-percent figure published last month.
Elsewhere, focus remained on the implosion of the Trump-Musk relationship.
Trump said in a televised Oval Office diatribe Thursday that he was "very disappointed" with criticisms from his top donor of a "big, beautiful" spending bill before Congress, before threatening to tear up the tycoon's multi-billion-dollar government contracts.
Hitting back, South African-born Musk slammed Trump on his X social media platform for "ingratitude", insisting that the Republican would not have won the 2024 election without him.
Shares in Musk's Tesla electric-vehicle manufacturer plummeted about 15 percent as the astonishing row escalated -- wiping more than US$100 billion from the company's value.
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