Dollar and Treasury yields under pressure, while global stocks struggle to advance further into record territory

A mostly positive Asia-Pacific session early on Thursday morning helped push the FTSE All World equity index to a fresh intraday record of 293.85. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.5% and on the Chinese mainland the Shanghai Composite also added 0.5% as construction sensitive equities found favour.

In Australia the S&P/ASX 200 inched up 0.1%, but Japan’s Topix index was off 0.2% as the yen strengthened.

In Europe profit taking from resources stocks dragged the Euro Stoxx 600, which closed on Wednesday at its best level since December 2015, lower by 0.4%.

In recent sessions, investor sentiment has been buoyed by hopes Mr. Trump’s mooted policies of tax cutting, deregulation and infrastructure spending will boost the world’s biggest economy, further expanding global growth at a time when there were already signs of a pick-up in Europe and China.

The rising expectations of a US rate hike have been supporting the dollar in recent sessions, but the currency is seeing some profit-taking. The dollar index tracking the greenback against a basket of peers was off 0.4% to 100.80 as the euro added 0.3% to $1.0632. The British pound also gained 0.5% to $1.2518 and the Japanese yen was 0.5 per cent firmer at ¥113.57 per US Dollar.

The price of oil strengthened as the selloff that followed Wednesday’s news that US oil stocks had climbed for a sixth straight week started to fade. Brent crude, was up 0.2% at $55.84 a barrel. Base metals had a mixed Thursday session. Copper, which earlier this week rose above $6,200 a tonne as workers went on strike at Chile’s Escondida mine, was down 0.3% on the day to $6,034. Gold definitely welcomed the softer dollar and easing bond yields, the precious metal gained 0.4% to $1,237 an ounce. This article was compiled by BOV Asset Management Limited, a member of the BOV Group. BOV Asset Management,TG Complex, Suite 2, Level 3, Brewery Str., Mriehel BKR 3000. Email: infoassetmanagement@bov.com Internet address: www.bovassetmanagement.com. BOV Asset Management is licensed by the MFSA.