European shares logged weekly declines on Friday, as investors tempered their expectations around major central banks reducing borrowing costs this year, with the focus now squarely on the European Central Bank’s next policy meeting.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended 0.3% lower after rising as much as 0.5% during the day. The benchmark index clocked a decline of 1.6% this week after hawkish remarks from ECB policymakers prompted traders to rethink expectations for interest rate cuts.
“We should take the jitteriness that we’ve been experiencing over the course of the last few weeks in the context of the rally that we already had throughout the course of 2023,” said Madison Faller, global investment strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. “Perhaps markets just got a little bit too ahead of themselves in terms of pricing those interest rate cuts so (what) we’re looking at…
