Global stocks soar, supported by bottomless stimuli
Global equities rose for the ninth consecutive day on Thursday, only record levels, with investors digesting recent gains sustained by the promise of more free money after a benign US inflation report and a dovish perspective from the Federal Reserve.
The MSCI world equity index, which tracks stocks in 49 countries, was 0.1% higher. This was not far from the peaks reached the previous day and only supporting a sequence of nine days of gains, the first since October 2017.
“The story really is still the US shares in the first place,“said James Athey, chief investment officer at Aberdeen Standard Investments.” The earnings season has been especially strong in the US, the fiscal stimulus coming from the Biden government is getting bigger in the market’s mind and most of the big winners of the pandemic are listed in the USA.
“Only the Fed can rock the boat and with yesterday’s disappointing impression of inflation, that outlook has dropped even further in the future. “
The prospect of further global stimulus had a major boost overnight, from a surprisingly smooth reading of US core inflation, which fell to 1.4% in January.
Federal Reserve President Jerome Powell he said he wanted to see inflation reach 2% or more before even thinking about reducing the bank’s super easy policies.