World stocks held near record highs on Thursday, February 23 and the dollar drifted out minimal gains after minutes of the latest U.S. Federal Reserve meeting showed policymakers in no big hurry to raise interest rates.
U.S. and euro zone government bond yields fell or held steady as the minutes did nothing to firm up expectations of a rate rise in March. That remains a slim prospect, with futures pricing in only an 18 percent chance, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
The pan-European STOXX 600 stocks index was marginally higher and close to 14-month highs touched on Tuesday. A 4 percent fall in miner Rio Tinto and a fall of nearly 5 percent in EasyJet, which were among companies whose shares went ex-dividend, weighed on the index.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 percent, hovering near the highest level since July 2015 it hit on Wednesday. Earlier, the index lost as much as 0.15 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei closed fractionally lower, as banks fell, and Australian shares ended down 0.4 percent.
MSCI’s world index also nudged higher and was within half a point of Wednesday’s record high, Reuters reports.
Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds held steady at 2.415 percent, having fallen after the minutes.
German equivalents, the benchmark for euro zone borrowing, edged up 1 basis point to 0.28 percent, having closed on Wednesday at 0.27 percent.
French 10-year yields fell 2 bps to 1.01 percent, reducing the premium investors demand to hold French rather than German debt, as the emergence of a centrist pact eased concerns over the upcoming election.
