World shares ground out a fresh record high yesterday, making it almost 50 for the year, although Europe traded cautiously as markets scrutinised thoroughly Spain’s Catalonia region push for independence.
Japan and South Korea ret-urned from extended breaks to give Asia a lift a Wall Street looked set to open higher, but the Catalan uncertainty meant the euro zone’s main bourses and Spanish bond markets spent the day in the red.
The euro remained resilient. It hopped to a one-week high of almost $1.18 as data showed German exports surged in August.
Traders were also still upbeat after one of the European Central Bank’s German policymakers called for an end to its stimulus.
There was also help from a weaker dollar, which was down for a third straight day.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against six major rivals, dropped 0.3 per cent to 93.366 and away from Friday’s almost three-month peak.
It gave the Turkish lira a breather after it had been sent sprawling to a nine-month low on Monday after the US and Turkey scaled back visa services.
Mexico’s peso hovered at its weakest in more than four months too, ahead of the latest round of talks over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) today.
Futures markets pointed to Wall Street breaking a two-day run of falls with the third quarter earning season now gathering steam.
Bond markets, meanwhile, were waiting to see if 10-year Treasuries would get above 2.4 per cent ahead of another Fed rate hike that is now seen as almost nailed on for December.
Japan’s Nikkei brushed off a weak start to finish 0.6 per cent higher too, though China stocks dipped as investors cashed in some of the gains that took them to a 21-month high in the previous session.
China’s Statistics Bureau yesterday said the country would have no problem meeting its economic growth target of around 6.5 per cent this year, and might even beat it. Such an outcome had been widely expected after a robust start to the year.
The stocks gains came in spite of tensions on the Korean peninsula. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a phone call on Monday that any further escalation of the situation was unacceptable.
In commodities, Brent oil prices pushed back above $56 a barrel after top producer Saudi Arabia signalled that it would trim its exports and as Opec flagged ongoing efforts to try to restore the longer-term “balance” of the market.
Brent jumped 50 cents to $56.31 a barrel, while a 54 cent rise took US crude back to $50 a barrel.
Gold prices also hit their highest in more than a week against the backdrop of a weaker dollar. Spot gold added 0.5 per cent to $1,290 an ounce.