World stocks were
within touching distance of an all-time high on Wednesday as investors
cheered signals from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen that the U.S.
central bank would not rush into raising interest rates.
Markets, still on high after
the euro zone agreed to extend Greece's aid deal, were given a further
lift as slightly better-than-expected Chinese factory activity data
helped ease concerns about the extent of the country's economic
slowdown.
European bourses opened little changed, happy to take a breather after six days of unbroken gains and a surge since the start of the year that has seen the benchmark FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 race up roughly 17 percent.
Following more rises for Wall Street and in Asia overnight, MSCI's 46-member All Country World Index .MIWD00000PUS was up 0.2 percent at 433.74 points and straining for the 434.24 all-time peak it scored back in September.
"All
the stars have been aligned recently, we have had the lower euro, the
lower oil and the lower cost of funding," said Didier Duret, chief
investment officer at ABN Amro. "For
the rally to continue we now need two things. The recovery has to be
driven by hard facts, the consumer and manufacturing. And we need the
hope that the Fed won't be too aggressive with hiking rates and
yesterday we got that message."
Yellen had told Washington's Senate Banking Committee that the U.S. central bank was preparing to consider interest rate hikes "on a meeting-by-meeting basis", but that she and her colleagues would provide markets with a clearer signals before they moved.
That was a subtle change of emphasis in how the Fed has been speaking about its plans, as it suggests though a hike could still come as early as June, a later date is also possible against the backdrop of weak U.S. inflation and a sluggish global economy.
The dollar .DXY had dropped in the wake of Yellen's comments overnight and continued to slip against a basket of currencies in early European trading
It fell 0.2 percent against the yen to 118.73 yen JPY=, while the euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.1375 EUR=. Sterling too, was up by a similar margin at $1.5502 GBP=D4.
European bourses opened little changed, happy to take a breather after six days of unbroken gains and a surge since the start of the year that has seen the benchmark FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 race up roughly 17 percent.
Following more rises for Wall Street and in Asia overnight, MSCI's 46-member All Country World Index .MIWD00000PUS was up 0.2 percent at 433.74 points and straining for the 434.24 all-time peak it scored back in September.
"All
the stars have been aligned recently, we have had the lower euro, the
lower oil and the lower cost of funding," said Didier Duret, chief
investment officer at ABN Amro. "For
the rally to continue we now need two things. The recovery has to be
driven by hard facts, the consumer and manufacturing. And we need the
hope that the Fed won't be too aggressive with hiking rates and
yesterday we got that message."Yellen had told Washington's Senate Banking Committee that the U.S. central bank was preparing to consider interest rate hikes "on a meeting-by-meeting basis", but that she and her colleagues would provide markets with a clearer signals before they moved.
That was a subtle change of emphasis in how the Fed has been speaking about its plans, as it suggests though a hike could still come as early as June, a later date is also possible against the backdrop of weak U.S. inflation and a sluggish global economy.
The dollar .DXY had dropped in the wake of Yellen's comments overnight and continued to slip against a basket of currencies in early European trading
It fell 0.2 percent against the yen to 118.73 yen JPY=, while the euro was up 0.3 percent at $1.1375 EUR=. Sterling too, was up by a similar margin at $1.5502 GBP=D4.
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