Stocks Steady After Turbulent Week; Dollar Slips

European stocks steadied after equities in Asia ended a tumultuous week on a positive note. The dollar fell and Treasuries were little changed.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index held gains from Thursday, while futures on U.S. indexes signaled a muted start across the Atlantic. Equities from Sydney to Hong Kong advanced, though Chinese shares underperformed. The Turkish lira was slightly stronger even after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Turkey would face more sanctions if the country didn’t release a detained American clergyman. Emerging markets steadied after a sell-off that had brought them to the brink of a bear market.

The possibility of a breakthrough in the U.S.-China trade dispute brought some calm to markets whipsawed by the brewing financial crisis in Turkey and renewed angst over technology stocks. While Asian equities headed toward their worst week since March, emerging-market stocks and commodities also finished the week in the red, as the trade war remains the wildcard for many markets.

“I don’t think we’re quite out of the woods yet,” Marcus Miholich, a managing director at State Street Global Advisors Ltd., told Bloomberg TV in Sydney. “Investors have definitely taken note of these tensions and have reallocated into more defensive sectors and defensive names. Given we don’t seem to have the light at the end of the tunnel just yet, that will continue.”

Elsewhere, oil was little changed, headed for a weekly loss amid the crisis in Turkey and after a surprise gain in U.S. crude stockpiles.

Main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed less than 0.1 percent as of 8:23 a.m. London time.

• Futures on the S&P 500 Index was unchanged, close to the highest in more than a week.

• The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index dipped less than 0.05 percent.

• Germany’s DAX Index declined 0.1 percent.

• The MSCI Emerging Market Index jumped 0.3 percent, the first advance in more than a week.

• The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.4 percent, the biggest advance in more than a week.

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.1 percent to the lowest in a week.

• The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.1386.

• The British pound rose 0.1 percent to $1.2725.

• The Japanese yen gained 0.1 percent to 110.74 per dollar.

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell less than one basis point to 2.86 percent, the lowest in more than four weeks.

• Germany’s 10-year yield dipped one basis point to 0.31 percent.

• Britain’s 10-year yield decreased one basis point to 1.24 percent.

• Italy’s 10-year yield declined one basis point to 3.106 percent.

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 0.1 percent to $65.50 a barrel.

• Gold rose less than 0.05 percent to $1,174.33 an ounce.

Source: Bloomberg