The MSCI’s all-country index of world stocks soared to new records overnight and MSCI’s Asia ex-Japan index breached its 2007 high for the first time to set a new all-time record.
Stocks in Hong Kong jumped 0.9 percent from Friday’s record closing high. Investors were optimistic that Chinese gross domestic product data for the December quarter due on Thursday would show growth of at least 6.7 percent for the world’s second-biggest economy.
The momentum of global economic growth through the closing months of last year is being underlined by the early stages of the fourth-quarter earnings season.
Earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to increase on average by 12.1 percent in the quarter, with profit for financial services companies likely to increase 13.2 percent, according to Thomson Reuters.
Wall Street stocks set records on Friday and looked set to rise again, with U.S. stock futures up 0.1 percent, but U.S. markets will be mostly closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Day holiday.
The strength in the euro pushed European stocks a touch lower, as exporters were hit by the currency strength. An index of pan-European stocks was down 0.1 percent on the day, but still not far from multi-year high hit last week.
The slight decline comes in the wider context of boom for stocks so far in 2018, as investors bask in strong growth numbers from most of the world’s largest economies.
The dollar index dropped to fresh troughs on Monday, with strength in the euro helping to push it down half a percent against a basket of six major currencies, to its lowest in more than three years.
Though the Federal Reserve is expected to continue to raise U.S. rates this year, those increases have largely been priced in and investors are starting to position for central bank action in Europe and Japan instead.
The dollar slipped to a six-week low against the yen at 110.67 yen, even as the head of the Bank of Japan reiterated his commitment to keeping yields low.
