China and Canada reset ties after Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to Ottawa, with Wang saying Canada could double exports to the Asian giant as bilateral trade and diplomatic engagement normalize.
SoftBank unveiled a €75 billion plan to build data centres in France, a move that comes as the Japanese conglomerate has overtaken Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable company and signals a major push into European cloud infrastructure.
Chinese consumers are rekindling demand for luxury goods after years of weakness, while industrial production in China remained broadly stable in May, offering a mixed but resilient picture of domestic activity.
In Africa, Morocco has surpassed South Africa as the continent’s most industrialised economy, propelled by Chinese and EU investments and a focus on autos and renewable energy projects that have accelerated manufacturing capacity.
Policy makers flagged risks to the outlook. ECB Governor Isabel Schnabel warned of the danger of unanchored inflation expectations amid the Iran conflict, and the Bank of France is expected to trim its growth forecast as geopolitical and energy shocks weigh on the euro area.
Markets were mixed into the close. All three major US stock indexes notched fresh highs on Friday. European equities traded flat, Asia showed a patchwork performance — Japan and mainland China corrected roughly 0.5%–1% while Hong Kong rose about 0.86% — and US futures pointed to a marginally firmer open. Oil rebounded about 2%, reflecting renewed supply‑side jitters.