Global equity markets finished lower last week, as investors continued to fret about when the US Federal Reserve might begin tapering its asset purchase programme. Markets were on tenterhooks until Friday’s employment report: 175,000 non-farm jobs were created in May, above analysts’ forecasts, but the unemployment rate, to which stimulus is tied, ticked up to 7.6% in May. Looking ahead, it is a relatively quiet week for data in the US and Europe. Investor focus could turn, instead, to Germany, where its top court votes on the legality of the European Central Bank’s outright monetary transactions programme.