London’s FTSE 100 was nearly flat around 10,830 points on Friday, as investors turned cautious ahead of closely watched US jobs data. In fixed income markets, bonds found some support after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller downplayed the likelihood of a near‑term rate hike, pushing the dollar lower.
In the UK, Bank of England Chief Economist Huw Pill argued that raising interest rates now could reduce the risk of the central bank having to tighten policy more forcefully later to contain inflation, which has picked up in the wake of the Iran war.
Mining stocks were among the weakest performers, with Anglo American, Rio Tinto, Glencore, and Antofagasta each declining between 0.6% and 1%. Among notable individual movers, Barclays slipped after unveiling plans to more than double its banker headcount in its Singapore private-banking unit by 2030.
