There was little positive news reported from the London Stock Exchange this week as markets remain somewhat stagnant, The U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index closed little changed on Friday, capping the benchmark gauge’s first weekly decline this month.  Xstrata Plc and Glencore International Plc fell as the companies requested a one-week extension for directors to decide on the commodity trader’s $35 billion takeover offer. Vedanta Resources Plc and Evraz Plc paced advancing shares as metal prices climbed. Pearson Plc rose the most in five months after Exane BNP Paribas upgraded the publisher. The FTSE 100 slipped 2.02 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 5,852.62 at the close of trading in London. The gauge erased an earlier advance of as much as 0.6 percent as options on the index expired in a process known as witching. Individuals around the country are looking for credit and as banks increasingly say no they are looking to payday text loans and other finance providers. The broader FTSE All-Share Index was also little changed, while Ireland’s ISEQ Index climbed 0.6 percent. This morning FTSE 100 Futures expiring in Decembers are off 0.9%. Rio Tinto Group may lead mining companies lower after the shares dropped 2.4 percent in Sydney trading.

European stocks declined for the third time in four days yesterday after a report signalled that Chinese manufacturing will contract for an 11th month, adding to concern the global economic slowdown is deepening. A gauge of mining companies posted the biggest drop of the 19 industry groups in the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Daimler AG lost 2 percent after saying earnings will fall at its Mercedes Benz Cars business. Telenet Group Holding NV surged 13 percent after Liberty Global Inc. made a $2.5 billion offer to buy the rest of the communications company. The Stoxx 600 slipped 0.2 percent to 274.5 at the close, while the Euro Stoxx 50 gauge of the biggest companies in the euro area dropped 0.6 percent.

Shoppers still struggle with finding credit and look to same day payday loans as a way to make ends meet. The Stoxx 600 has still climbed 17 percent from this year’s low on June 4 as European Central Bank policy makers agreed to implement an unlimited bond-buying program and the Federal Reserve unveiled its third round of asset purchases. Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index, a benchmark for the euro region, gained 0.7 percent to 2,568 at 7:15 a.m. Devgen NV may be active after Syngenta AG made a cash offer. Cie. Financiere Richemont SA may move after the company said in a statement it will buy Peter Millar LLC, a U.S. luxury apparel business, in a transaction that will be completed next month. The deal will have no material impact on consolidated net assets or operating earnings for 2013, the company said.

With positive news filtering out of the ECB, European stocks show more bullish signs. This news also had a knock-on effect across the pond. U.S. stocks climbed and Treasuries erased their advance as the Federal Reserve said it will buy mortgage securities and keep interest rates “exceptionally low” through the middle of 2015 to bolster the economy. The S&P 500 rallied 1.6 percent to 1,459.99 at 4 p.m. in New York. The index hadn’t risen more than 0.2 percent before the Fed statement. Ten-year Treasury yields increased two basis points to 1.78 percent after falling as much as five points earlier. Oil erased gains, decreasing 0.2 percent to $96.80 a barrel after jumping as much as 1.6 percent. Individuals earning middle and low incomes still look to payday text loans and other similar providers for credit.

The Fed said it will expand its holdings of long-term securities with open-ended purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt a month and hold the federal funds rate near zero “at least through mid-2015.” Asian stocks rose, with the regional benchmark index headed for the longest winning streak since January 2011, after the Federal Reserve said it will buy mortgage-backed securities to bolster economic growth. Same day cash loans often are the only place many spenders go to in order to obtain the funding they are seeking. Techtronic Industries Co, a maker of Ryobi power tools that gets 72 percent of its sales in North America, gained 6.5 percent in Hong Kong. Zhaojin Mining Industry Co, which gets 89 percent of its revenue from gold mining, surged 14 percent in Hong Kong after the price of the precious metal climbed to a six-month high. Daewoo Securities Co. paced gains among financial firms, jumping 15 percent in Seoul. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 2.5 percent to 123.99 as of 3:39 p.m. in Tokyo, poised for a seventh day of advance and the highest close since May 4. More than five stocks climbed for each that fell on the measure, which has gained 4.1 percent this week and is heading for the biggest weekly increase since December. Nine of the 10 groups on the gauge advanced.