European Securities and Markets Authority chairman Steven Maijoor says the EU's revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive has not improved transparency or cut data costs. "After nearly two years of operating under MiFID II, we are still lacking a reliable view of liquidity across the EU," Maijoor said.

Saudi Aramco has raised $25.6 billion in the world's biggest initial public offering. The IPO gave Aramco a valuation of $1.7 trillion, less than the $2 trillion Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had wanted.

European officials are divided on the best way to proceed toward a banking union. EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni calls Germany's proposal unacceptable, while Italian economy minister Roberto Gualtieri says Italy will make its own proposal.

OPEC members and other oil-producing countries have agreed to reduce production by an additional 500,000 barrels per day, bringing the total to 1.7 million barrels per day, until the end of the first quarter, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak says. "We really do see some risks of oversupply in the first quarter due to lower seasonal demand for refined products and for crude oil," he says.

Millions of public-sector workers went on strike Thursday in France, paralysing the country, to protest President Emmanuel Macron's proposal to overhaul the pension system. Although the walkout was mostly peaceful, clashes broke out between violent protesters and police in Paris and Nantes.

Japanese households reduced spending by 5.1% year over year in October, the biggest decline since March 2016. A typhoon disrupted business in much of the country, while consumers decreased spending in response to a sales tax increase.

The UK swaps market has progressed toward replacing Libor with the Sterling Overnight Index Average, but firms cannot stop writing Libor-based swaps as long as banks still make Libor-based loans, executives say. "It's really important that we continue to provide Libor for as long as people need it and have a more gradual move-away," says Eske Traberg Smidt, head of global rates trading at Danske Bank.

Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra has called on the EU to form a common agency to combat money laundering. "Those who think that this problem is mostly a problem that is linked to some of the banks in some of the countries are up for a rude awakening," Hoekstra says.

Market participants anticipate a targeted review of Europe's revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive by EU lawmakers next year, but they largely disagree over whether rules concerning post-trade data for over-the-counter derivatives need to be just tweaked, or completely rewritten.

China's Central Economic Work Conference will likely set a growth target of "around 6%" for the country's economy during 2020, analysts say. Analysts are divided, however, over whether the conference will raise the country's inflation target.