A look at the day ahead in European and global markets from

Gregor Stuart Hunter

Aaaaaand... breathe. After an enormous week of trade deals,

a more hawkish ECB and a buyer's strike in the Japanese bond

market, investors are taking a pause from a recent risk-on rally

ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's August 1 tariff deadline.

Traders can be excused some profit-taking. On the docket

next week are interest rate decisions from the U.S. Federal

Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of Canada, plus U.S.

non-farm payrolls data and earnings from Amazon ( AMZN ), Apple ( AAPL )

, Meta and Microsoft ( MSFT ).

Earnings season so far has laid bare the fact that

businesses focused on artificial intelligence are raking it in.

Those catering to actual people, less so.

One more reason to relax: Following a rare - and tense -

visit to the Fed on Thursday, Trump expressed displeasure with

the cost of renovating the bank's headquarters but said he is

not going to fire Chairman Jerome Powell. For now, anyway.

"To do so is a big move and I just don't think it's

necessary," Trump told reporters after the visit. Yields on

Treasury bonds and the U.S. dollar index were little changed

afterwards, again shrugging off Trump's attacks on Powell and

the threat to the Fed's independence that such attacks imply.

That said, Wall Street looked like it might extend record

highs to the end of the week, with S&P 500 and Nasdaq

futures both up around 0.2%.

The past week saw trade agreements with Japan, Indonesia and

the Philippines, while deal talks continued with the EU and

South Korea.

Trump has since said Australia has agreed to open its market

to American beef in a post on Truth Social, and will next meet

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Aberdeen, Scotland, to

thrash out the details of a trade framework agreed in June.

Still in the hot seat is BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda after the

core consumer price index for Tokyo rose 2.9% on year in July.

The central bank is in a tough spot when it comes to managing

inflation. Its hands are tied as pressure builds on the prime

minister to step down after the weekend's election drubbing but

with no clear candidate to replace him.

The dollar strengthened 0.2% against the yen after

the inflation data to 147.23. Still, the Japanese currency

remains on course for a weekly gain of 1.1%.

Key developments that could influence markets on Friday:

* U.S. earnings: HCA Healthcare, Charter Communications

* European earnings: Volkswagen, NatWest, Eni

* U.S. data: Durable goods orders for June, Kansas City Fed

services activity for July

* UK data: Gfk consumer confidence for July, retail sales

for June

* Eurozone data: M3 for June, ECB quarterly Survey of

Professional

Forecasters

* German data: Ifo survey for July

* French data: Consumer confidence for July

* Italian data: Consumer and manufacturing confidence for

July

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