Euro at two-year high, Asian shares barely budge

The euro held near two-year highs against the dollar on Friday after the head of the European Central Bank said tapering of its stimulus will be on the table this autumn, while a solid global economic outlook kept Asian share prices near decade highs.

Although ECB President Mario Draghi set no date for changes to the bond-buying plan, investors took his comments on Thursday as confirming their expectations that the discussions would lead to monetary tightening next year.

By late Asian trade, the euro stood at $1.1630 EUR=, maintaining its 1 percent gain on Thursday, its biggest since June 27, when Draghi first sparked expectations that the ECB will dial back its bond buying scheme. 

Signs of steady global growth, which have prompted the ECB and a couple of other major central banks to signal future tightening since last month, have kept the world's shares on firm footing. 

European shares are expected to be flat to slightly lower, with spread betters looking at a flat opening in Britain's FTSE .FTSE and a 0.1 percent fall in Germany's DAX .GDAXI and France's CAC .FCHI. 

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS, which has gained about 5 percent in the past two weeks, eased 0.2 percent on Friday, dragged down by fall in material .MIAPJMT00PUS and financial .MIAPJFN00PUS shares. 

Japan's Nikkei .N225 dropped 0.2 percent. 

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS was down slightly after rising for a 10th straight session on Thursday, its longest such streak since February 2015. It has advanced 3.1 percent in the latest rally. 

U.S. quarterly earnings are expected to have climbed 8.6 percent, above the 8-percent rise projected at the start of the month, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. About 15 percent of S&P 500 companies having posted results so far.