US stocks opened higher, pushing up a gauge of global market indexes yesterday, as investors continued to be bullish on equities ahead of a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen with oil prices and the dollar both little moved.

Wall Street hit record highs and the dollar rose to a 14-year peak last week as investors piled on bets that the anticipated fiscal boost from the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump would support riskier assets.

That trend looked set to continue yesterday with US equities traders cautiously optimistic in a low-volume environment analysts said was typical of the last full trading week of the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 25.5 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 19,868.91, the S&P 500 gained 3.56 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 2,261.63 and the Nasdaq Composite added 23.76 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 5,460.92.

Europe’s index of leading 300 shares retreated from Friday’s 11-month high and fell 0.09 per cent. Shares in Italy’s Monte dei Paschi fell more than 11 per cent as it made a last-ditch attempt to raise €5 billion by year-end and avoid a state bailout.

Germany’s DAX index edged up 0.2 per cent while France’s CAC slipped 0.22 per cent. Britain’s FTSE 100 edged up 0.08 per cent.

MSCI’s all-country world index that tracks stock markets around the globe rose 0.2 per cent.

Investors looked ahead to Yellen’s speech at 1.30pm (1830 GMT) for further insight into last week’s decision by the Fed to raise US overnight interest rates for the first time this year and its projection of three rate hikes in 2017.

The dollar slipped 0.2 per cent, but was still near a 14-year high against a basket of currencies touched last week.

The Turkish lira and Russian rouble fell to session lows against the greenback on reports the Russian ambassador to Turkey was seriously injured in a gun attack in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

The lira was last down about 0.5 per cent at 3.525 lira per dollar, while the rouble hit a session low of 62.045 rouble per dollar before retracing to 61.800, according to Reuters data.

The safe-haven Japanese yen added to gains after the report of the ambassador being shot, rising more than one per cent against the dollar. It has bounced back strongly from last week’s losses, helped by strong Japanese export data.

US Treasury yields fell further from multi-year highs after the report, furthering the day’s price moves as investors covered short positions ahead of year-end as they looked to Yellen’s speech.

The yield on 10-year US Treasuries was last 2.53 per cent, down nearly seven basis points.

Japan’s Nikkei, which has benefited from the yen’s sharp fall against the dollar, snapped its nine-day winning streak, edging down from Friday’s one-year high.

Oil prices edged lower but held around $55 per barrel, supported by delays in new Libyan oil exports and expectations of tighter supplies going into 2017.

Brent futures fell 0.7 per cent to $54.82 a barrel.

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