Tokyo stocks ended nominally lower on Friday after thin trade with overseas investors absent over the Christmas holidays.

Turkey's central bank on Thursday hiked its main interest rate to 17 percent in what economists greeted as a sign that the financially troubled country was embracing monetary orthodoxy once again.

The pound and European stock markets rose Thursday with Britain and the EU finally expected to announce a post-Brexit trade deal.

Sterling was up around half a percent against the dollar and euro in early London deals.

The European Union and Britain could agree the terms of a post-Brexit trade deal within hours, European sources said Wednesday, as negotiators sought to hammer out the last details. 

Angry lorry drivers confronted police Wednesday as thousands waited to take cargo across the Channel at an abandoned airfield in southeast England, complaining of poor facilities and lack of virus tests.

President-elect Joe Biden has said he will ask Congress for another Covid-19 relief bill when he takes office, insisting that Americans want Republicans and Democrats to work together again after Donald Trump goes.

New applications for U.S. jobless benefits fell by 89,000 last week after two weeks of increases but remain high as Covid-19 cases have spiked, according to government data Thursday.

Stock markets rose and the dollar fell Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump called a key US stimulus package "a disgrace" and told lawmakers to fix it.

Canada and Britain have signed a temporary agreement to avoid an increase in tariffs between the two countries after the British exit from the European Union in early 2021, Ottawa said Tuesday.

At the end of November, the two countries announced they had concluded a provisional post-Brexit trade agreement that would reflect, as of January 1, the terms of the deal that Britain benefited from as a member state of the EU. 

The U.S. Justice Department sued Walmart over its role in the opioid crisis on Tuesday, alleging the giant retailer wrongly filled prescriptions and worsened a public health disaster.