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Vicky Sybesma, President of Philips and former CEO of DSM, discusses the global climate agenda and government regulations.

UK retail sales fell significantly more than expected in December, a sign that the economy may have entered a shallow recession in the second half of 2023.

Office for National Statistics He said Sales volumes fell by 3.2% during the main trading month, after rising by 1.4% in November. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a decline of only 0.5%.

“Today’s release will shave about 0.15 percentage points off real GDP growth in December, raising the chances that the economy will end 2023 in the mildest of a moderate recession,” said Alex Kerr, assistant economist at Capital Economics.

The British pound fell by 0.25% against the US dollar and 0.27% against the euro, while British bond yields fell.

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-Jenny Reed

IG data shows European markets are set to open higher, with the FTSE 100 up 46.6 points to 7,506, Germany's DAX up 86.5 points to 16,644, and France's CAC 40 up 43.6 points to 7,444.

-Jenny Reed

Chip stocks rose in Asia on Friday after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's upbeat annual outlook the previous day on the back of artificial intelligence-related demand.

TSMC shares rose 4.42%, while shares of South Korean memory chip makers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix rose 3.21% and 2.42%, respectively.

TSMC expects 2024 to be a “healthy growth year” due to demand for 3nm and 5nm technologies as well as the artificial intelligence boom. This comes after a challenging year for chipmakers amid adverse global macroeconomic conditions and an inventory adjustment cycle.

“TSMC is ideally positioned to benefit from it [AI]. “There is an insatiable appetite for low-power, high-performance chips that will be able to enable AI on devices,” Daniel Newman, principal analyst at Futurum Research, said on CNBC's Squawk Box Asia.

– Sheila Chiang

Many sectors — and stocks — in the Asia-Pacific region look “particularly attractive right now,” according to AllianceBernstein.

While naming them “Best Asian Stocks for the Next 6 Months,” the Wall Street bank analysts wrote that these stocks “rank highly on a quantitative basis and companies where our Bernstein analysts have a strong positive outlook.”

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– Amala Balakrishner

Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia are among several S&P 500 names that hit 52-week highs on Thursday. AMD was trading at all-time highs not seen since the company's initial public offering in September 1972, while Nvidia shares reached levels not seen since January 1999. Other technology and software companies, industry names and hotel chains also reached new highs.

Here are some names that have reached all-time highs:

Stocks in the broad market index that hit 52-week lows include Devon Energy, Exxon Mobil and Humana.

– Piya Singh, Christopher Hayes