World shares continued their strong start to 2018, with Wall Street opening up and European stocks advancing, while the US dollar reversed its losses against the euro after a brief dip following the US jobs report.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.45 per cent, reaching a fresh record high on the day.
Throughout the first week of 2018, world shares have risen and several benchmarks have broken records. With the world’s largest economies all growing healthily at once and central banks moving slowly to tighten policy, investors have poured money into risk assets.
US stocks advanced yesterday as investors looked past weaker-than-expected US job gains in December and focused on signs of a pick-up in wage growth.
Non-farm payrolls increased by 148,000 jobs last month, while economists had expected a rise of 190,000. Average hourly earnings rose 0.3 per cent, compared to 0.1 per cent in November.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 90.05 points, or 0.36 per cent, to 25,165.18, the S&P 500 gained 10.18 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 2,734.17 and the Nasdaq Composite added 44.90 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 7,122.82.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index gained 0.77 per cent, and emerging market stocks rose 0.65 per cent.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.7 per cent higher, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.89 per cent.
The US dollar rose, after a brief dip, after investors decided the US.December non-farm payrolls report would not stop the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates multiple times this year.
The dollar index last rose 0.15 per cent, with the euro down 0.27 per cent to $1.2034.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.41 per cent at 113.23 per dollar, while Sterling was last trading at $1.3564, up 0.10 per cent on the day.
Benchmark US Treasury 10-year notes last fell 7/32 in price to yield 2.4763 per cent, from 2.453 per cent. The 30-year bond last fell 19/32 in price to yield 2.8144 per cent, from 2.786 per cent late on Thursday.
Oil prices fell yesterday, with US production soaring. Earlier in the week, prices climbed to highs last seen in 2015, boosted by tightening supply and political tensions in Opec member Iran.
US crude fell 1.34 per cent to $61.18 per barrel and Brent was last at $67.40, down 0.98 per cent on the day.