Global stocks rise, dollar softens on Fed easing bets

LONDON: Global equities rose on Thursday, with Japanese shares hitting record highs, as tech-led gains on Wall Street, upbeat earnings, growing hopes for a Ukraine ceasefire, and expectations for US interest rate cuts lifted investor sentiment.
Markets largely shrugged off President Donald Trump's latest tariff actions, including a 25% tariff on imports from India over its Russian oil purchases and a threatened 100% duty on semiconductors.
'It's surprising that everything that gets thrown at the market... it just continues to melt-up,' said Eddie Kennedy, head of bespoke discretionary fund management at Marlborough.
Europe’s STOXX 600 rose 0.5%, with Frankfurt’s DAX and Paris’s CAC 40 up 1% and 0.8%, respectively. London’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.3%.
Plans for a meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine also lifted European equities and supported the euro.
“It (a ceasefire) would be an extra positive,” said Emmanuel Cau, Barclays head of European equity strategy. “It’s not the key driver, but it's definitely been a lingering issue for Europe.” In Asia, Japan’s Topix rose 0.7% to a record close, with the Nikkei also up about 0.7%. Taiwan’s benchmark index surged as much as 2.6% to a 12-month high, led by a 4.9% jump in TSMC shares. South Korea’s KOSPI added 0.6% after officials said Samsung and SK Hynix would be exempt from the 100% tariffs.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.5%, while China’s CSI300 was only slightly higher. The offshore yuan firmed to 7.1819 per dollar.
US S&P 500 futures rose 0.3% after the cash index closed 0.7% higher on Wednesday. “Wall Street seems to have gotten its mojo back,” said Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda. “But there are persistent downside risks... valuations are stretched and trade uncertainty remains.” The dollar weakened against major peers, pressured by growing expectations for a dovish Federal Reserve. This comes amid soft macroeconomic data, including Friday’s jobs report, and Trump’s push to nominate Fed board members aligned with his policy views.
The benchmark 10-year US Treasury yield was steady at 4.2365%, while the two-year yield edged up to 3.7134%, near Monday’s three-month low of 3.659%.
The dollar index fell 0.2% to 98.031, extending a 0.6% drop from Wednesday. The euro gained 0.2% to $1.1686, and sterling rose 0.2% to $1.3378.
In commodities, spot gold gained 0.3% to $3,376 an ounce.— Reuters