U.S. consumer sentiment improved further in August and households' near-term inflation expectations fell to an eight-month low amid declining gasoline prices, a survey released on Friday showed.

Profits at China's industrial firms sank in July, reversing previous gains as fresh COVID-19 curbs dragged down demand and squeezed factory margins, while power shortages due to heatwaves threatened production.

Economists are turning more bearish about China’s economy, downgrading their growth forecasts further for 2022 and seeing lingering risks into next year as turmoil in the property market and Covid outbreaks persist. 

The European Central Bank's decision to raise its key interest rates by half a percent in July was opposed by some members of its governing council, according to the accounts of the meeting published on Thursday.

 European Central Bank policymakers at their meeting last month appeared increasingly concerned that high inflation is getting entrenched and the risk was large enough to warrant a bigger-than-flagged rate hike, the accounts of the July 21 meeting showed.

The sprawling Chinese region of Chongqing, home to several large global automakers, extended power curbs at factories as a record heatwave and drought continue to wreak economic and environmental damage throughout the country's southwest.