The United States’ strong economic growth during the first half of 2018 was given the thumbs up by the Federal Reserve on Friday in its semi-annual report to Congress, where it also reiterated that it expected to continue to raise interest rates gradually.

Global markets

Markets across the globe gained on Friday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that talks between the world's two largest economies could be reopened if Beijing was willing to make significant changes.

This was seen by many investors as a sign of easing trade tensions.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.21 percent on Friday and the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.26 percent.

Gains in industrial stocks and energy companies boosted Wall Street indices.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 94.52 points on Friday, or 0.38 percent, to 25,019.41, the S&P 500 gained 3.02 points, or 0.11 percent, to 2,801.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.06 points, or 0.03 percent, to 7,825.98.

For the week, the Dow added 2.3 percent, the S&P rose 1.5 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.79 percent.

Middle East markets

Stock markets in the Middle East were mostly lower on Thursday on little market moving news.

The Saudi index lost 0.3 percent with 96 declining stocks out of 179 stocks traded.

National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's largest lender by assets, fell 2.3 percent. Property developer Jabal Omar lost 2.2 percent, and petrochemical giant SABIC shed 0.5 percent, while Samba Bank and Al Jazira Bank rose 0.9 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.

In Dubai, the index shed 0.3 percent on a 2.9 percent drop by Dubai Investment Company.

Property developer Emaar rebounded from the previous session's 2.2 percent decline to close 0.8 percent higher. Emirates NBD added 1.0 percent.

Neighbouring Abu Dhabi's index closed flat. Aldar Properties fell 0.9 percent; Dana Gas jumped 1.9 percent.

Qatar’s index dropped 0.4 percent, as Qatar National Bank fell 1.6 percent.

In Egypt, the main index lost 0.3 percent, hurt by a 1.9 percent decline by Commercial International Bank and a 3.1 percent drop by property developer Talaat Mostafa.

Kuwait’s index fell 0.6 percent, while Bahrain’s index closed flat and Oman’s index lost 0.3 percent.

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Oil prices

Oil prices rose on Friday on supply disruptions in Norway and Iraq, buy gains were limited by a reopening of Libyan ports.

Brent crude rose 88 cents to settle at $75.33 a barrel, a 1.18 percent gain. The global benchmark fell about 2.7 percent for the week.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 68 cents to settle at $71.01 a barrel, but lost about 3.9 percent this week.

“Persistently declining oil supplies from Venezuela and simmering strike actions in Norway and Iraq are prompting bullish sentiment,” Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy in London, told Reuters.

Currencies

The dollar finished lower on Friday after touching a two-week high, its highest since June 29.

Against a basket of major currencies, the greenback index slipped 0.1 percent.

Precious metals

Gold prices dropped on Friday on easing trade tensions between the U.S. and China.

Spot gold was 0.6 percent lower at $1,239.70 an ounce at 1151 GMT, down from $1,238.87 earlier, its lowest since July 3. It has fallen about 9 percent since the middle of April.

U.S. gold futures slipped 0.5 percent to $1,240.9 an ounce.

(Writing Gerard Aoun; Editing by Shane McGinley)
(gerard.aoun@thomsonreuters.com)

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