Shares in Europe hit record highs on Thursday, supported by optimism in Britain over the easing of foreclosure restrictions, while a favorable outlook for US interest rates should push Wall Street to new highs . The European STOXX index of the top 600 companies rose 0.3% to a new high of 436.66 points. London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 rose 0.2%.
“It looks good because valuations in Europe are much lower than they are in the US, so there is potentially more benefit. The line of least resistance for European markets is higher,” Michael said. Hewson, Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets. “In terms of economic reopening, there is enough built-in optimism at the moment to push the markets a little higher from here, and the Fed reiterated that it is going to sit on hold for a while,” Hewson said.
The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting, released on Wednesday, showed members felt the economy was still far from target and were in no rush to cut their $ 120 billion in spending purchases. ‘bonds per month. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at an International Monetary Fund event later Thursday and is likely to reiterate the dovish outlook.
The European Central Bank was due to release the accounts of its March 11 political meeting amid a debate about when it should start scaling back its pandemic stimulus, with the eurozone’s recovery still uncertain. Wall Street was also set to hit new highs on Thursday with S&P 500 e-mini futures up 0.25% after hitting a record high, and Nasdaq futures up 0.7 %.
Gains in US Treasuries have also helped, although analysts have said markets will be tested next week when the US earnings season begins. In Asia, the largest MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks excluding Japan edged up 0.3% in quiet trading. Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.3%, not helped by news that the governor of Tokyo had called for emergency measures to stem a spike in COVID-19 infections.
Yields on 10-year Treasuries fell back to 1.669% from the recent 14-month high of 1.776%, but struggled to break below 1.59%. The drop coincided with the dollar index falling to 92.360 from its recent five-month high at 93.439.
The euro was held flat at $ 1.1871, after climbing to $ 1.1914 overnight following a surprisingly bullish survey of trade activity in the European Union. In the commodities markets, gold was at $ 1,743 an ounce after meeting resistance around $ 1,745.
Oil prices fell after official figures showed a sharp increase in gasoline inventories in the United States, raising concerns over weakening demand for crude among the world’s largest consumer of the resource at a when the world’s supplies are increasing. Brent fell 22 cents to $ 62.94 a barrel. US crude fell 37 cents to $ 59.40 a barrel.
(Additional reporting by Wayne Cole and Chibuike Oguh; editing by Larry King)
(This story was not edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)