World stocks were set for their longest weekly winning streak since 1999 yesterday, while the dollar buckled again as its weakest run since 2010 reverberated through almost every major asset class.
The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was inching higher ahead of what was expected to be another day of gains for Wall Street’s already-record high S&P 500 and Dow markets.
MSCI’s world gauge was setting new milestones of its own, with its 10th week of gain on the trot securing its longest winning streak since 1999.
European shares edged up too though they were in the red for the week as the pressure of more euro strength, which has ripped to its highest in three years this week and is yet to suffer a weekly fall in 2018 took its toll.
Currency markets yo-yoed again yesterday. Comments from US President Donald Trump that he “ultimately” wanted a strong dollar had given the greenback a lift, but it couldn’t hold the gains in European trading and slid steadily lower.
“While President Trump’s comments prompted a short covering rally in the US dollar, they won’t have alleviated investors separate concerns about recent belligerent US rhetoric on trade,” said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets in London.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, last stood at 89.006.
The euro, meanwhile, had risen as much as half a percent to trade just below its December 2014 high of above $1.25 it had hit on Thursday as the ECB showed only minor concern about the single currencies recent surge.
Earlier in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4 per cent for the day, led by gains in Chinese financial and property shares.
That left it with gains for 11 straight days, the longest sequence since 2015, and its seventh straight week of gains for the first time since 2010, though Japan’s Nikkei ended down 0.2 per cent as the strength of the yen weighed.
Meanwhile, oil prices reversed earlier falls as the weak dollar was seen supporting fuel consumption.
US crude futures were 0.1 per cent higher at $65.56 per barrel after reaching $66.66 on Thursday, their highest since December 2014.
Brent crude futures were down at $70.28 per barrel.