EU parliamentary elections, a raft of global economic data and results from US retailers in the week ahead should provide investors with an opportunity to assess some of the key themes that have plagued financial markets over recent sessions.

US markets bounced back on Friday as global markets stabilised following supportive comments on trade from Donald Trump. However the modest gains were not enough to prevent the major indices from ending the week in the red amid worsening US-Chinese trade tensions and mounting global growth concerns.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into Boeing’s disclosures to investors about the 737 Max airliner, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Kenya’s High Court on Friday upheld a 100-year-old set of laws that criminalise gay sex in what equality campaigners described as a major setback in the fight to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people around the world.

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has emerged as a shareholder in Sirius Minerals, the London-listed company building a giant fertiliser mine under a national park in North Yorkshire.

The head of Barrick Gold has defended the company’s proposal to acquire the shares it does not already own in Tanzania-focused Acacia Mining.

US orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell by the most in six months in April, with the weaker-than-expected result driven by a decline for the transportation sector.

Foot Locker maintained its full-year sales guidance but dialled back its earnings growth forecast as it reported a weaker first quarter than Wall Street had expected, dragging shares down more than one-tenth in pre-market trading.

The chair of the House of Commons pensions committee has added his voice to the backlash against Sir Philip Green’s planned restructuring of his ailing retail empire.

The UK pound rose back above $1.27 in choppy trading after Theresa May outlined her plans to step down as prime minister and trigger a Conservative party leadership contest next month.

Vedanta Resources has started its fightback against an attempt by the government of Zambia to seize control of its Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) unit.

The Bank of England is considering imposing an additional floor on the amount of capital lenders have to hold to extend mortgages in the wake of eroding capital levels and riskier lending practices returning at British banks and building societies.

Britain’s energy watchdog has cut the returns energy networks such as National Grid are allowed to make following fierce criticism of the monopolies that own the pipes and cables that transport gas and electricity around the country.

George Soros, one of the world’s best-known investors, has amassed a stake in GAM, sending shares in the embattled Swiss asset manager up more than 20 per cent on Friday.

UK regulators have extended access to Openreach’s infrastructure to business networks as well as to those that are laying high-speed cables to support mobile and broadband networks.

South Africa’s Old Mutual has suspended its chief executive after a “material breakdown of trust and confidence” with the board over a conflict of interest in a private equity company he founded.

SpaceX has successfully deployed 60 Starlink satellites into orbit, the first step in the Elon Musk-backed company’s bid to create a space-based internet connectivity service that competes with traditional networks. 

Brent crude rebounded slightly in Asian trading on Friday following its biggest one-day loss of the year overnight on rising US inventories and growth fears. 

President Donald Trump has directed US intelligence agencies to “quickly and fully co-operate” with an investigation into surveillance issues connected to his 2016 presidential campaign.

Consumer inflation in Japan edged up in April, lifted by pricier energy and utilities, but remained well below the Bank of Japan’s 2 per cent target. 

US copper miner Freeport-McMoRan has sold its cobalt refinery in Finland to Belgium’s Umicore for $150m.

Wall Street fell sharply on Thursday, extending a broad and deep sell-off across global stock markets as concern about the potential impact of the deepening trade dispute between the US and China took a tighter grip on sentiment.

Facebook said it took down a record 2.2bn fake accounts in the first three months of this year, only slightly less than the total number of monthly active users on the social media network, in a sign that its battle against bad actors is far from over.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, was on track for its biggest loss of the year so far on Thursday, as traders weighed the risks from a US-China trade war and rising inventories in the US.