* Dovish Powell, weak job data stifles inflation concern
* The S&P 500 jumps to a record high as U.S. yields fall
* The dollar index looks the worst week of the year with lower bond yields
* China’s stocks slide as price data spur concerns
LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) – Global equities hit record highs on Friday as Wall Street tech stocks applauded fears of US inflation, with a lack of inflationary pressure keeping bond yields close. of the minimums of two weeks.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated Thursday afternoon that inflation was not a concern, following data showing an unexpected rise in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits.
MSCI’s broadest measurement of world stocks set a record in Asian trade, although it fell 0.1% to 0.755 GMT. The index has gained more than 1.5% this week.
“As long as the monetary stimulus is easy, as long as fiscal policy is easy, probably any inconvenience in stocks will only find buyers,” said Giles Coghlan, chief currency analyst at HYCM.
Emini futures remained stable after the S&P 500 rose 0.42% to a record and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.03%.
Britain’s FTSE 100 reached its highest point in more than a year, reaching weekly gains of almost 3%, helped by the country’s rapid vaccine deployment.
German stocks fell 0.22%.
Powell noted at an IMF event that the central bank was not about to reduce support for the U.S. economy, and said that while economic reopening could lead to temporarily higher prices, it would not constitute inflation.
Deutsche Bank analysts said the comments “offer new reassurance to investors who had started trading in previous rate hikes thanks to some very strong economic data in recent weeks.”
Traders have accumulated shares of megacap technology such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc., which were the main engines of the S&P 500.
Treasury yields at the 10-year benchmark remained close to the two-week advance on Thursday, close to 1.6%.
Yields had risen to their highest level since January 2020, with 1.776% at the end of March, as a series of strong US economic data sparked fears of a rise in inflation that could force the Federal Reserve to rise interest rates earlier than hitherto pointed out by policymakers.
10-year German bond yields rose 2 basis points, moving away from the ten-day lows of the previous session.
The US dollar index gained 0.2%, but was set for the worst week of the year, exacerbated by the Treasury’s low profitability. The euro fell 0.2% after surpassing two-week highs in the previous session.
The CBOE volatility index reached its lowest level since February 2020 at 16.55.
In Asia, Japan’s Topix gained 0.6% and Australian stocks stood near 13-month highs, while South Korean Kospi touched the highest intraday level since mid-February.
However, Chinese equities fell 1.5%, as strong data on national inflation raised concerns about tightening policy.
Factory prices rose at their fastest annual rate from July 2018 to March.
Oil prices declined as investors weighed on rising supplies from major producers and the impact on fuel demand from the COVID-19 pandemic.
US crude fell 0.35% to $ 59.38 a barrel, while Brent lost 0.5% to $ 62.87 a barrel.
Spot gold fell 0.5% to $ 1,747 an ounce, after jumping to a one-month high of $ 1,758 on Thursday.
Additional reports by Dhara Ranasinghe in London, Kevin Buckland in Tokyo and Chibuike Oguh in New York; Edited by Christopher Cushing, Kim Coghill and Nick Macfie