World stock hovered close to all-time highs on Monday, January 8, as the best start to a year in eight years showed little sign of running out of steam, with the combination of strong global growth and low inflation powering the appetite for risk.
The world index was flat, just below record highs. .MIW000000PUS. It has gained 2.5 percent in the first five trading sessions of the year, its best start since 2010, according to Thomson Reuters data.
European stocks opened higher, hitting their highest levels since August 2015, while Asian markets inched towards all-time peaks.
Wall Street last week posted its best start to a year in more than a decade; Friday’s U.S. jobs report, while weaker than expected, encouraged hopes that brisk growth and low inflation can be sustained this year.
The U.S. dollar recovered after a weak start to the year, strengthening past the key level of $1.20 against the euro, although with bearish positions against the greenback high, many traders are betting on a stronger single currency.
Positive euro zone economic data – with economic growth in the euro zone is on its best run in a decade – has helped the euro, and investors globally wanting exposure to the economic recovery in the region have piled into European assets.
The synchronised global recovery has prompted central banks across the world to follow the Federal Reserve’s lead and start moving towards tighter monetary policy in recent months, supporting their currencies against the dollar.
“The overall trend is minutely supportive for the U.S. dollar as we are seeing a global recovery led by China and Europe and there is a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines, waiting to buy European assets,” said Peter Chatwell, head of European rates strategy at Mizuho International in London.
Euro zone blue chip stocks were up 0.23 percent STOXX50E, with France’s CAC 40 .FCHI ahead by 0.3 percent and Germany’s DAX .GDAXI ahead by 0.31 percent.
Wall Street has already enjoyed its best start to a year in more than a decade, with the Dow .DJI up 2.3 percent last week and the S&P 500 .SPX 2.6 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC led the charge with a rise of 3.4 percent.
Attention in the U.S. will turn to the quarterly earnings season, which kicks off this week with the Street expecting solid growth of around 10 percent,Reuters reports.
Analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said that the global economy had entered 2018 “firing on all cylinders”.
