Equity Markets
Canada's main stock index rose early on Friday as miners, financials and railways broadly gained, while Tahoe Resources Inc plunged after a Guatemalan court upheld the suspension of its license to operate one of the world's largest silver mines.
The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index was up 18.22 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 15,094.38 shortly after the open. It is on track for a 1 per cent gain on the week.
U.S. stocks also opened higher on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 57.23 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 21,840.63. The S&P 500 gained 8.09 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 2,447.06. The Nasdaq Composite added 24.07 points, or 0.38 per cent, to 6,295.40.
World stocks drifted toward their best week in six on Friday, as a near three-year high in emerging markets shares and a roaring rally in metals bolstered the year's global bull run. Moves were tight ahead of speeches later by U.S. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen and European Central Bank president Mario Draghi at one of the highlights of the central banking calendar, the Jackson Hole, Wyoming symposium.
European shares gave up an early push higher though London's FTSE did hold modest gains supported by its heavyweight mining contingent and the pound's fourth straight weekly fall. A weaker sterling flatters the appearance of internationally-earned profits.
"Our current assessment of the overall risk and reward picture keeps us overweight global equities in our tactical asset allocation," UBS Wealth Management chief investment officer, Mark Haefele, said in a monthly note.
"Earnings and economic growth are strong enough, and central bank policy is still sufficiently loose to suggest that, in the absence of a shock, markets are likely to trend higher over the next six months."
Emerging markets have been a strong driver of the rise in global stocks this year.
MSCI's 24-country EM index hit a near three year high on Friday. Asia-Pacific shares ended the week 1.6 per cent higher, having shrugged off an overnight dip on Wall Street as a rift between U.S. President Donald Trump and Congress over the country's debt level rumbled on.
Asian stocks advanced on Friday. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.25 per cent, set to end the week 1.6 per cent higher.
Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.6 per cent, heading for a flat end to the week.
China's Shanghai Composite index jumped 1.5 per cent to its highest level since January 2016. Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained almost 1 per cent.
South Korea's KOSPI climbed almost 0.1 per cent and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index was little changed.
In a post on Twitter, Trump said Congress could have avoided a legislative "mess" if it had heeded his advice on raising the amount of money the government can borrow, known as the debt ceiling.
Since 1960, Congress has acted 78 separate times to permanently raise, temporarily extend, or revise the definition of the debt limit –– 49 times under Republican presidents and 29 times under Democrat ones.
Commodities
Oil prices rose on Friday as the U.S. petroleum industry braced for Hurricane Harvey, which may become the biggest storm to hit the U.S. mainland in more than a decade.
Harvey became a category 2 storm as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico with winds of 169 kph, 355 km off Corpus Christi, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said.
The hurricane is forecast to make landfall late Friday or early Saturday between Corpus Christi and Houston, both important oil refining centres.
Energy companies have pulled workers from offshore oil platforms and halted onshore drilling in south Texas.
Just under 10 per cent of offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico crude output capacity and nearly 15 per cent of natural gas production had been halted by midday on Thursday, government data showed.
"Damage and flooding to refineries and shale fields, disrupted production in the Gulf of Mexico and infrastructure damage are unlikely to be bearish for WTI," said Jeffrey Halley, market analyst at brokerage OANDA.
U.S. gasoline prices have risen almost 10 per cent since Wednesday to a high of $1.74 a gallon, their highest since April as refiners shut down in preparation for the storm.
The Port of Corpus Christi, Texas was closed to vessel traffic, a spokeswoman for the city's Port Authority said.
Oil refineries in the city run by Citgo Petroleum, Valero Energy Corp and Flint Hills Resources also began shutting down.
Beyond the storm's potential impact on the oil industry, crude remains in ample supply globally despite efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to hold back production in order to prop up prices.
Elsewhere, gold was steady on Friday, marking time ahead of speeches by Yellen and Draghi.
"The market is waiting for the speech by Draghi to hear anything about tapering and the ultra-loose monetary policy from the ECB, and normalization of interest rates in the United States from Yellen," said Peter Fertig, a consultant at Quantitative Commodity Research.
"There could be some speculative buying ahead of the speeches but at this stage it makes sense to have low exposure to gold."
The dollar pressured gold by edging higher against a basket of six major currencies on Friday.
Escalating geopolitical concerns were also preventing gold prices from retreating significantly, market participants said.
Among other precious metals, silver edged up 0.7 per cent to $17 an ounce, while platinum was flat at $978 an ounce.
Palladium was up 0.4 per cent at $935.20 per ounce, after earlier touching its highest in 16 years at $940.50. The metal has gained 1.2 per cent so far in the week.
Currencies and bonds
The Canadian dollar was steady against the U.S. dollar on Friday, as investors looked ahead to key central bank speeches amid the lack of domestic events to steer further direction in thin trading.
The U.S. dollar gained more ground against the yen and the euro on Friday as traders bet Yellen would promise to push forward with plans for tighter monetary policy.
The debate in Congress over raising the government's debt ceiling has begun to loom over the U.S. currency, with lawmakers expected to have just two weeks to agree to a deal when they return in September.
But with trade thinned out by the last weeks of the European holiday season – and a bank holiday weekend in the world's main currency trading hub, London – expectations for more signs of a reduction of the Fed's balance sheet was keeping the greenback higher.
"Given the vibes that we have been getting from the Fed I think it is becoming clear that they are intent on pursuing this balance sheet reduction next month," said Alvin Tan, a strategist with Societe Generale in London.
"The market is effectively expecting an announcement in September so (if Yellen promises one) it will not be a surprise. (But) the knee-jerk could help push U.S. bond yields higher and obviously help the dollar."
Stocks set to see action
Tahoe Resources Inc plunged after a Guatemalan court upheld the suspension of its license to operate one of the world's largest silver mines.
Energy companies have pulled workers from offshore oil platforms and halted onshore drilling in south Texas. The Port of Corpus Christi, Tex., was closed to vessel traffic, a spokeswoman for the city's Port Authority said. Oil refineries in the city run by Citgo Petroleum, Valero Energy Corp and Flint Hills Resources also began shutting down.
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. has been selling assets, paying down debt and riding a recovery of its shares from their lowest point last spring. But one big uncertainty – its potential legal costs – just got bigger. Lord Abbett & Co., the mutual fund company, filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Valeant on Wednesday alleging that it bought shares in the drug giant at an artificially high price because of misinformation provided by Valeant. The suit, filed in federal court in New Jersey and alleging violations of New Jersey's racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations law, represents a new and potentially costly legal attack on Valeant, which is already facing lawsuits over alleged manipulation of drug prices.
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Economic News
Key economic reports released today include Japan's CPI and Germany's real GDP and business climate. Ottawa's budget balance of June is also unveiled.
New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods rose slightly more than expected in July and shipments surged, pointing to an acceleration in business spending early in the third quarter.
The Commerce Department said on Friday non-defense capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, increased 0.4 per cent last month after being unchanged in June.
At 10 a.m. ET, Yellen speaks on "Financial Stablity" at Kansas City Fed's economic symposium.
With files from Reuters and Bloomberg