Global Markets: ECB to go easy; Brexit goes sour

European Union and British leaders gave themselves until the end of the weekend to seal a new trade pact, with some $1 trillion in annual trade at risk of tariffs if they can't reach a deal by Dec. 31, when transition arrangements end.

"There's still clearly some scope to keep talking, but there are significant points of difference that remain," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told BBC TV. "(On) Sunday, they need to take stock and decide on the future of negotiations."

For the ECB, economists expect its 1.35 trillion-euro PEPP stimulus plan to be expanded by at least 500 billion euros and its duration extended by six months to the end of 2022, with risks skewed towards even more.

The bank will announce its policy decision at 1245 GMT, followed by ECB chief Christine Lagarde's 1330 GMT news conference. Traders will be also listening to what she says about the euro's near 14 percent rise since March.

"The critical element is that there has been an impact on (eurozone) growth recently," said Shoqat Bunglawala, head of global portfolio solutions for EMEA & APAC at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, referring to the second wave of lockdowns. "So we would expect to see some further support.

Eurozone government bond yields - which move inversely to price - continued to fall. Italian 10-year yields fell to a record low at 0.53 percent. Spain and Portugal's hit 0.013 percent and -0.022 percent respectively.

In Asian trading, MSCI's broadest index for the region eased 0.4 percent, with Japan's Nikkei ending 0.2 percent lower. Both are up more than 60 percent from March lows.

S&P 500 futures were 0.1 percent higher after the Nasdaq dropped 2 percent on Wednesday, when U.S. regulators filed lawsuits again Facebook alleging the company used its dominance to buy or crush rivals, harming competition.

S&P Dow Jones Indices then said it would remove 10 Chinese companies from its equities indices and several others from its bond indices overnight. It followed a move by Donald Trump's outgoing administration to ban U.S. investors from buying certain Chinese securities.

U.S. lawmakers were also unable to sort out disagreements over aid to state and local governments that are holding up a broader spending package, though they did at least approve a stop-gap government funding bill.

"We've risen so far so fast that it's making investors cautious," said Michael McCarthy, chief strategist at stockbroker CMC Markets in Sydney.

"The fall in tech stocks was a bit of a concern, given that they've risen in all market weather over the last six weeks, so to see them come off might signal that we're looking at a short- term corrective move."

Elsewhere, faith in the recovery appeared to be holding up. Brent oil futures were up 0.8 percent at $49.23 a barrel and U.S. crude was up 0.9 percent at $45.96 a barrel. Gold nursed losses at $1,839 an ounce.

"We think the market has certainly got confidence in the sustainability of this recovery," Goldman's Bunglawala said.