Next week's inauguration and Trump's initial policy moves are now firmly in focus and the Treasury market remains key.
To that effect, the confirmation hearing for Trump's Treasury Secretary pick Scott Bessent on Thursday was an important marker for the debt market and the dollar.
Bessent underscored plans for a rollover of Trump's 2017 tax cuts - positing an economic "calamity" if they were not, despite disquiet among some Congressional Republicans. But he also stood squarely behind the dollar's dominant global role, supported Fed independence and insisted no debt default would ever be considered.
Earlier in the day, the latest U.S. economic health checks showed retail spending remained firm, weekly jobless claims ticked up and business confidence captured by the Philadelphia Fed survey jumped higher this month. December industry and housing starts numbers are out later on Friday.
Overseas, news of a 5% Chinese gross domestic product growth for 2024 met both market forecasts and the government's target -- despite some doubts about that only a few months ago. Fourth quarter annual readings were higher than expected at 5.4% and both industrial and retail sales growth in December also surprised to the upside.
Perhaps of greatest relief in Beijing was news that monthly house prices stopped falling for the first time since 2023 -- even though they remained 5.3% lower year-on-year.
Chinese stocks were marginally higher.
Longer-term problems for the Chinese economy continued to lurk, however, with data showing the population there fell last year for the third year running.
In Europe, euro zone inflation came in as expected but there was another negative surprise for Britain's struggling economy with a surprise drop in UK retail sales in December. The pound and recently edgy British gilt yields slipped.
