World stocks sustained their strong start to 2018, with European stocks closing higher and Wall Street advancing,on Friday, January 5 while the U.S. dollar reversed its losses against the euro after a brief dip following the U.S. jobs report.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.51 percent, reaching a fresh record high on the day.
Throughout the first week of 2018, world shares have risen and several benchmarks have broken records. With the world’s largest economies all growing healthily at once and central banks moving slowly to tighten policy, investors have poured money into risk assets.
European shares scored their best week since last April on Friday, with the pan-European STOXX 600 closing up 0.93 percent and holding at a two-month high. Euro zone blue chips .STOXX50E gained 1.09 percent on the day, notching the best performance since April.
Switzerland’s blue-chip SMI .SSMI hit an all-time high, rising 0.50 percent, and Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE also sailed to a new record and closed up 0.37 percent.
U.S. stocks also advanced on Friday as investors looked past weaker-than-expected U.S. job gains in December and focused on signs of a pick-up in wage growth.
Traders of U.S. short-term interest-rate futures continued to bet the Fed would raise interest rates just two times this year, heavily pricing in a March rate hike.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI last rose 107.77 points, or 0.43 percent, to 25,182.9, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 10.6 points, or 0.39 percent, to 2,734.59 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 46.35 points, or 0.65 percent, to 7,124.26.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS closed 0.73 percent higher, while Japan’s Nikkei .N225 rose 0.89 percent.
Emerging market stocks rose 0.68 percent.
The U.S. dollar rose on Friday, after a brief dip, after investors decided the U.S. December non-farm payrolls report would not stop the Federal Reserve from raising interest rates multiple times this year.
“What we’d be concerned about is if we see a couple of prints below 100,000. Until then, we’re okay,” he added, Reuters reports.
