In the absence of almost any scheduled corporate updates on Friday, all eyes will be on macro factors with preliminary fourth quarter growth readings due for both the UK and the US economies.
The UK economy has proved to be resilient in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum in June 2016, despite worries over higher inflation impacting consumers.
However, the UK was the only major G7 economy to experience a downgrade in growth outlook in the latest issue of the World Economic Outlook from the International Monetary Fund published last Monday.
The IMF now expects the UK economy to grow by 1.5% year-on-year in both 2018 and 2019, down 0.1% from the previous 2019 forecast.
For the final quarter of 2017, UK GDP is expected to have risen by 0.4% on the third quarter, but with the annual growth rate slipping to 1.5% from 1.7%.
Meanwhile, US fourth quarter GDP could dip below the plus-3% growth reported in the previous two quarters, but a consensus figure of 2.7% would still mean the economy posting its longest and strongest run of quarterly increases in over a decade.
And the US tax cut bill that President Trump signed into law in December is expected to be a catalyst for even stronger growth in 2018.
Significant events expected on Friday January 26:
AGMs: Treatt PLC (LON:TET, URA Holdings PLC (LON:URA)
Economic data: UK GDP; US GDP; US durable goods orders