Summary:

• Hopes on forming a new government in Germany are still alive as SPD considers backing Merkel’s cabinet
• European stocks move higher, IFO Business Expectations surprises to the upside
• It’s a Black Friday – the sale result form today will be closely scrutinized by investors

One of the most interesting news from this morning came from Germany saying that President Steinmeier called for a joint meeting with Chancellor Merkel and SPD’s Schulz next week. It could mean that the SPD steps down and it’s preparing for a continuation of the grand coalition. This talks may rule out snap elections next year, thus investors have enjoyed that report. EURUSD has slightly moved up as well as stock indices. As far as currency market is concerned, NZD and JPY have been among top losers. 

After a calm start European benchmarks speeded up gains. Before noon German DAX (DE30) jumped over 0.6%, French CAC40 (FRA40) added 0.71% but the UK FTSE100 (UK100) remained flat. Besides political factors, the IFO Business Expectations came in above consensus (111.0, against 109.2 expected) underscoring a strong momentum in the largest European economy.

In Asia most of indices posted increases. Japanese shares turned higher after the Nikkei manufacturing PMI for November surged to 53.8 pts – the highest level since at least 2014. That comes on the heels of a jump in the eurozone’s similar gauge on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei (JAP225) closed 0.13% higher, whilst Hang Seng CE increased by 1.46% – the benchmark recovered the yesterday’s plunge.  Only Australian S&P/ASX200 (AUS200) declined by 0.06%.

The Japanese yen has been the worst performer within the G10 basket being 0.3% down against the US dollar in early trading. It could be a little bit weird because of two factors. Firstly, manufacturing PMI from Japan picked up from 52.8 to 53.8 in November and the Bank of Japan decided today to slash the size of its JGB purchases by 10 billion JPY which on the surface should have been conducive to the Japan’s currency but it did not at all. Besides, the NZ dollar has been also among the weakest major currencies. It could be ascribed to the trade data we knew on Thursday evening. The report showed a deficit at -871 million NZD whereas -760 million NZD had been anticipated.

Another week on cryptocurrencies is coming to an end and we may conclude that buyers of Dash and Ethereum could be the most satisfied as both virtual currencies have made remarkable increases so far. Let’s begin with Ethereum which soared on Thursday following upbeat predictions coming from Mike Novogratz who said that Ethereum would hit $500 by the end of the year.

Due to Thanksgiving on Thursday today’s session on Wall Street is closing earlier than usual – at 6 pm BST. Nevertheless, it’s Black Friday, thus sale reports could spur higher reactions on the stock market. Moreover, we get flash PMIs from the US economy.