LONDON (Reuters) – Global equities rose for the fourth straight day on Tuesday and oil followed suit as hopes of a new US stimulus ended a strong year-end for more assets. risky and the dollar had two and a half years of minimum sight.
The MSCI World index rose 0.4% at 1010 GMT, expanding its recent rise after the gains in Asia, where Japanese equities hit a 30-year high. MSCI’s broader Asia-Pacific stock index outside Japan rose 0.5%.
The first gains in Europe were broad-based, with the rise of all major indices, led by Britain’s blue chip stocks. They increased their first day of negotiations since the Christmas Eve agreement of a trade agreement with the European Union.
The FTSE 100 rose 2.4%, ongoing for its fourth consecutive day of earnings, led by companies in several sectors likely to benefit from the deal, including Intertek and Diageo.
“Multinationals, which are the most likely beneficiaries of friction-free, tariff-free trade and foreign exchange winners, generally lead the position in the FTSE 100,” said Russ Mold, AJ Bell’s chief investment officer .
Banks and other financial services boosted the London market.
“This suggests that nerves remain about the agreement that will be reached in 2021 in terms of financial services and, in fact, services in general.”
Among the winners was also drug maker AstraZeneca, which received news that the British government should approve its COVID-19 vaccine in a few days.
The launch of the European Union’s vaccination program, hoping to end the widespread blockades that have halted the economies of the entire bloc, saw positive sentiment shared with the continent, where travel and leisure stocks exceeded increased by 2%.
US futures on equities also point to a 0.5% higher opening on Wall Street later in the day, based on hopes that the Senate will approve a $ 2.3 trillion stimulus package on Sunday signed into law by President Trump on Sunday.
The package covers $ 1.4 trillion in spending to fund government agencies and $ 892 billion in aid to COVID-19, including $ 2,000 checks to help cushion the economic impact of the pandemic.
The prospect of higher demand helped boost oil prices with futures on Brent crude and the Northwest Texas Intermediate from the United States rising by about 1.3%.
Demand for riskier assets weakened the U.S. dollar, which is often considered a safe haven asset. It fell 0.2% compared to a basket of currencies and observed the minimum success of the 18 months of November.
Reducing the dollar has been a popular trade. Reuters calculations based on data released Monday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission suggested the trend would continue. Dollar short positions rose in the week ending Dec. 21 to $ 26.6 billion, the highest in three months.
Among other currencies, the pound rose 0.2% against the dollar, investing two days of losses, albeit outside its previous high. The euro rose for the third day in a row, an increase of 0.3%, also driven in part by talk of an EU-China trade pact.
European government debt yields fell, with yields on ten-year German bonds at 0.57% and riskier yields on Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
A slow dollar boosted gold prices, which rose 0.5% to $ 1,878.9 an ounce. [GOL/]