Thanks for joining me. JP Morgan paid its chief executive his highest ever salary at the bank as its profits and share price outperformed its peers.
Jamie Dimon received $36m (£28.4m) for 2023, a 4.3pc increase on the previous year.
5 things to start your day
1) Hunt plots tax cuts as inflation crisis eases | Chancellor admits voters are ‘very angry’ about high levies
2) Thousands of jobs at risk under net zero plans at Britain’s biggest steelworks | Tata steel plans to decarbonise by replacing its blast furnaces with green technology
3) Norfolk couple win battle against Louis Vuitton over ‘absurd’ name dispute | ‘David and Goliath’ fight ends in victory for gardening business
4) Ben Marlow: One fleeting Christmas won’t restore faith in the Royal Mail | Company’s misplaced optimism does little to distract from a pervading sense of decline
5) Matthew Lynn: Sunak’s pride has allowed Labour to steal the show at Davos | Britain’s main champion missed the chance to turn the country’s fortunes around
What happened overnight
Asian shares bounced back, buoyed by a rally in global chipmakers, while the yen was set to end the week with heavy losses as investors pared back bets the Bank of Japan would soon abandon its uber-easy policies.
Taipei-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) surged 6.3pc after the chipmaking giant projected 2024 revenue growth of more than 20pc. Its U.S. shares soared nearly 10pc overnight, fuelling a broad tech rally on Wall Street.
Tokyo stocks closed higher on Friday, led by the gains in chip-linked shares, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 index adding 1.4pc, or 497.10 points, to 35,963.27, while the broader Topix index ended up 0.7pc, or 17.94 points, at 2,510.03.
Data showed Japan’s core consumer inflation slowed for a second straight month in December, adding to speculation that the BOJ is not in a rush to tighten its ultra loose monetary policy.
The yen lost 0.2pc to 148.48 per dollar, having fallen almost 2.5pc for the week to the lowest level since early December.
Chinese stocks slipped again after bouncing off five-year lows a day before on signs of state support. Chinese bluechips fell 0.3pc while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index eased 0.2pc.
Wall Street bounced back on Thursday and regained almost all the losses it suffered earlier in the week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9pc, to 4,780.94, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 leading American companies 0.5pc, reaching 37,468.61. The Nasdaq Composite index, which heavily features technology shares, jumped 1.3pc, ending up at 15,055.65.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury bonds rose again Thursday, to 4.13pc from 4.11pc late Wednesday indicating less confidence over imminent interest rate cuts. But the move was milder than earlier in the week, when it jumped up from 3.95pc.