A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from Kevin Buckland
Two big stock stories are grabbing investor attention: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s slip behind Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) as the world's most valuable company, and strong sales at Uniqlo that helped drive the Nikkei to yet another post-Bubble peak.
In Japan, the trading day got off to a bang with Fast Retailing, which operates the Uniqlo store chain, surging more than 7% and contributing two-thirds of the Nikkei's total gains in the early minutes.
The Nikkei's world-beating 6.3% surge so far this year - its best start in three decades - makes it a global outlier, however, rather than a driver of gains elsewhere. Britain's FTSE is down about 2% and Europe's STOXX 600 has shed 1.3%.
The disappointing run for Chinese stocks continues from 2023, with mainland blue chips and Hong Kong's Hang Seng both slumping more than 4% since the start of the year.
Friday's data releases from China show persistent deflationary pressure and weak consumption, keeping the onus on Beijing for more stimulus measures to turn things around.
Britain has a fairly heavy calendar of data releases on Friday, with GDP and industrial output due to test sterling's recent resilience.
In the U.S., the S&P 500 and Dow are among the very few major stock benchmarks globally that are positive so far this year, although they are just barely better than flat.
Turning to Apple, it was briefly pipped by Microsoft overnight as the world's biggest company by market cap.
Both tech giants are worth around $2.9 trillion, with Microsoft steadily closing the gap since last year because of its early leap into generative AI investment.
Meanwhile, China presents a risk for the iPhone maker given the outsized importance of its market.
The world's no. 2 economy could potentially be problematic for Fast Retailing as well this year: It has 931 Uniqlo outlets in greater China, more than anywhere else, including its home base Japan.
Key developments that could influence markets on Friday:
-UK GDP est. (Nov)
-UK industrial and manufacturing output (Nov)
-France, Spain CPI final (both Dec)
-US PPI (Dec)
(By Kevin Buckland; Editing by Edmund Klamann)