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Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at online trading platform IG said:

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its forecast for UK economic growth this year, projecting a modest acceleration after the country's 2024 performance fell short of expectations. The IMF now anticipates the UK’s GDP will grow by 1.6% in 2025, a slight increase from its previous 1.5% prediction made last October.

This revised outlook offers a welcome boost for chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has faced a turbulent start to the year, with financial markets in London under pressure. Concerns over potential stagflation — where growth stagnates while inflation remains stubbornly high — led to rising borrowing costs and a drop in the value of the pound earlier this month.

However, recent easing in inflation, both in the UK and the US, has helped calm some of these fears.

Read more on Yahoo Finance UK

Miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L) edged 1% higher on Friday, following reports that it had held early stage talks with Glencore (GLEN.L) about merging the companies.

Bloomberg reported that the discussions took place as late as last year but were not currently active.

Spokespeople for Rio Tinto and Glencore had not responded to Yahoo Finance UK's request for comment at the time of writing.

Glencore shares were up nearly 3% on Friday morning, following the news.

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said: "The prospect of Glencore merging with Rio Tinto is like trying to force a square through a circle-shaped hole. Fundamentally it wouldn’t fit, and the only solution would be to trim off the sides such as getting rid of Glencore’s coal assets.

"Even then, it would be like picking up two magnets and putting the like poles together, instantly repelling each other. This would not be a marriage made in heaven."

Yahoo Finance UK's Vicky McKeever writes:

Shares in language-learning app Duolingo (DUOL) jumped nearly 7% in Thursday's session, after it said that US-based Mandarin Chinese learners had more than tripled ahead of the incoming TikTok ban.

Duolingo said in a post on social media platform X that its data between 1 December and 13 January showed that new Mandarin learners in the US had surged 216% year-on-year.

This jump comes as the looming TikTok ban in the US has prompted many users to migrate over to a similar Chinese app translated as "Red Note". The app is meant for Chinese users and doesn't have translations for English speakers.

The owner of TikTok, Chinese technology company ByteDance, has until the deadline of Sunday 19 January to sell its assets in the social media platform. If the company does not divest from TikTok by this date, Apple and Google (GOOG) will then be required to remove the software from their respective app stores.

This would effectively ban the app across the US, unless this is halted by the Supreme Court.

Here's our full take: Eurozone inflation remains at 2.4%

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, said:

Yahoo Finance UK's Pedro Goncalves writes:

Oil prices rose on Friday, poised for a fourth consecutive week of gains as the latest US sanctions on Russian energy trade disrupted supply, boosting spot prices and shipping rates.

Brent crude futures increased by 0.3% to $81.55 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 0.7% to $79.22.

Despite a decline on Thursday, triggered by expectations that Yemen’s Houthi militia would cease attacks on ships in the Red Sea, both contracts are still on track for a fourth weekly gain. Brent has gained 9% year-to-date, and WTI has risen 10%.

"Supply concerns from US sanctions on Russian oil producers and tankers, combined with expectations of a demand recovery driven by potential US interest rate cuts, are bolstering the crude market," said Toshitaka Tazawa, an analyst at Fujitomi Securities, according to Reuters.

"The anticipated increase in kerosene demand due to cold weather in the US is another supportive factor," he added.

Investors are also closely monitoring the potential for further supply disruptions following Donald Trump’s return to the White House next Monday.

"Mounting supply risks continue to provide broad support to oil prices," ING analysts wrote in a research note, noting that the Trump 2.0 administration is likely to adopt a tough stance on Iran and Venezuela, two key crude oil suppliers.

Fourth-quarter 2024 profits at Bank of America (BAC) and Morgan Stanley (MS) more than doubled, cementing a Wall Street revival that has dealmakers optimistic about the coming Trump era in 2025.

Strong investment banking and trading results also helped push profits higher at other big banks in the fourth quarter, including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), and Wells Fargo (WFC).

The six major US banks that have reported earnings so far this week showed a combined profit of more $36 billion in the fourth quarter and $145.7 billion for all of 2024.

The fourth quarter mark was more than double their collective profit in the fourth quarter of 2023, and the annual haul was 19% higher.

Read more on Yahoo Finance

Lisa Hooker, PwC UK leader of industry for Consumer Markets at PwC said:

Here's the ONS data:

• Retail sales volumes (quantity bought) are estimated to have fallen by 0.3% in December 2024, following a small rise of 0.1% in November 2024 (revised down from 0.2% in our last publication).

• Falls in supermarkets were partly offset by a rise in non-food stores, such as clothing retailers, which rebounded from falls in recent months.

• Looking at the quarter, sales volumes fell by 0.8% in Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2024 compared with Quarter 3 (Jul to Sept) 2024 but rose by 1.9% compared with Quarter 4 2023.

US stocks look set for a positive open later on.

From our US team:

US stocks closed lower Thursday, as the major indexes struggled to build on the previous day's surge amid another round of big bank earnings and a slide in tech stocks. Investors also watched the Capitol Hill confirmation hearing of President-elect Donald Trump's pick for Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell about 0.2% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped more than 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell almost 0.9%, leading the way down, as several large-cap tech stocks like Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA) underperformed.

Markets were coming off a major one-day rally on the heels of a surprise easing in consumer inflation that prompted questions about whether the pricing out of interest-rate cuts this year had gone too far. Stocks ripped higher on Wednesday on the back of the data and stellar earnings from major US lenders.

Traders have now ramped up bets that the Federal Reserve lowers rates before July, reversing the pile-out that was sparked by the stronger-than-expected December jobs report.

Hello from London. It's been a busy week around the world in market news, with GDP and inflation readings around the world and mounting borrowing costs in the UK gilt markets. Meanwhile major companies have been reporting results.

But we're not done yet.

Out today:

• UK retail sales data

• DFS results

• Chinese GDP data

• Eurozone inflation figures

• US industrial production data

Let's get to it.