Global shares, on Wednesday, December 13, were close to another record high on Wednesday as markets traded on expectations of a third U.S. interest rate hike of the year.
Solid gains in Asia overnight had inched MSCI’s 47-country world index .MIWD00000PUS up for a fifth day running and while the pre-Fed anticipation meant Europe’s main bourses were barely budged, there was action elsewhere.
A technical glitch on futures markets made for a stuttering start to European government bond trading, while the dollar was down against the yen, pound and euro after President Donald Trump saw his already-wafer thin U.S. Senate majority cut further.
It fell as far as 113.12 yen as Democrat Doug Jones won a bitter fight for a Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama, in a race marked by sexual misconduct accusations against Republican candidate Roy Moore.
The stunning upset makes Jones the first Democratic senator from Alabama in a quarter of a century and will trim the Republicans’ majority to just 51-49, meaning it could be harder for Trump to advance his policy agenda.
S&P e-mini futures ESc1 were down as much as 0.3 percent after the election outcome, though they clawed their way back to flat in European trading to be broadly in line with the region’s STOXX 600 index .
In Asia overnight, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS climbed 0.5 percent, while South Korean shares .KS11 gained 0.8 percent and Hong Kong .HSI jumped 1.5 percent.
Japan’s Nikkei stock index .N225 finished 0.5 percent lower however, pressured by the stronger yen and shrugging off upbeat economic data that showed Japanese core machinery orders rose a more-than-expected 5 percent in October.
