In European Equity Markets the pan-European Stoxx 600 moved lower in the early afternoon but recovered ground to close Friday’s session 0.42 percent higher by the closing bell. Europe’s banking index moved into positive territory on Friday, up around 0.5 percent amid support from Italy’s notoriously fragile lenders. Britain’s Flybe jumped towards the top of the London Stock Exchange on Friday. Shares of the stock rose more than 70 percent after the regional airline confirmed Virgin Atlantic was one of the parties it was in talks with as part of a formal sales process.

In Currency Markets the US dollar rose on Friday, on pace for its biggest weekly percentage increase in a month, as risk appetite declined and investors sought the currency’s safety following a steep drop in oil prices that suggested global growth is slowing. The safe-haven yen and Swiss franc also advanced. The Australian dollar, often considered a gauge for global risk appetite, weakened 0.3 percent to U$0.7232. The euro fell 0.6 percent at $1.1345 after German private-sector growth slowed to its lowest level in nearly four years.

In Commodities Markets oil prices fell more than 6 percent on Friday, with Brent set for a 12-percent decline this week, as fears that supply would overpower demand intensified, even as major producers considered cutting output. Oil supply, led by U.S. producers, is growing faster than demand and to prevent a build-up of unused fuel such as the one that emerged in 2015, the OPEC is expected to start trimming output after a meeting on Dec. 6. Brent crude oil fell $3.81, or 6.1 percent, to $58.79 a barrel, after earlier touching $58.57, its lowest since October 2017.

In US Equity Markets stocks fell on Friday as oil prices plunged to their lowest in more than a year, dragging down energy shares, while U.S.-China trade talks at the G20 summit next week kept investors on edge in a truncated trading session. Oil majors Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp fell more than 3 percent. That pressured the S&P energy index, which fell 3.4 percent, the most among the 11 major S&P sectors. The S&P 500 was down 0.27 percent, at 2,642.66 and the Nasdaq Composite fell marginally 0.03 percent, at 6,974.50.

In Bond Markets Germany’s 10-year bond yield fell to its lowest since early September on Friday as weak business activity data for the bloc fanned concerns about the growth outlook, prompting a further scaling back of ECB rate-hike expectations. Germany’s benchmark 10-year Bund yield fell by over 3 basis points to 0.332 percent, its lowest level since early September. Other 10-year bond yields in the bloc fell as much as four bps as investors bet that weak economic data would encourage the ECB to leave rates lower for longer.