By Iain Withers
LONDON (Reuters) -Global stocks traded near record highs on Friday as investors awaited key talks between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin over Ukraine in Alaska and for U.S. retail data that may give clues on the health of the world’s biggest economy.
The MSCI All Country World Index consolidated recent gains as European stocks edged higher in early trading. The index was last up 0.2% at 953.4, just shy of the record level of 954.21 set on Wednesday.
Wall Street futures were also up slightly around 0.1-0.2%.
The White House has said the Trump-Putin meeting will take place at 11 a.m. Alaska time (1900 GMT), with the U.S. president’s hopes of a ceasefire agreement on Ukraine uncertain. Trump has said a second summit involving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy could follow if the talks go well.
“There’s still a small degree of risk premium in European markets because of the war. Any type of resolution will ultimately pare that back,” said Shaniel Ramjee, co-head of multi-asset at Pictet Asset Management, adding that oil and other commodity prices could also react.
“But I think that the market has learnt not to expect too much from these negotiations. Ultimately, Zelenskiy and the Europeans are not invited. They will need to be involved in any final negotiation.”
Investors are also training their sights on U.S. retail data due later, after an unexpected spike in producer price data on Thursday renewed inflation concerns and pared market expectations for Federal Reserve rate cuts this year.
“What it did was to get rid of all the chat about a 50 basis point cut (in September),” said Mike Houlahan, director at Electus Financial Ltd in Auckland.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was flat at 4.287%, after the previous day’s 5 basis point rise in the aftermath of the PPI data. [US/] The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last trading down 0.2% at 97.965.
Japanese GDP data released on Friday showed the economy expanding by an annualised 1.0% in the April-June quarter, beating analyst estimates. The dollar weakened 0.4% against the yen to 147.16.
In commodities markets, Brent crude was down 0.7% at $63.52 per barrel. Gold edged up 0.2% to $3,342 per ounce. [GOL/]
Cryptocurrency markets stabilised after bitcoin touched a record $124,480.82 on Thursday. The digital currency was last up 0.9%.
(Reporting by Iain Withers in London; Additional reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter in Singapore; Editing by Stephen Coates, Kate Mayberry and Alex Richardson)
