Global stock markets rally after volatile week


FE Team | Published: June 30, 2018 12:14:28 | Updated: July 04, 2018 13:58:25


Representational image (Collected)

Global stock markets rallied on Friday, with Wall Street seeing its record gains and European indexes recovering from a volatile week pegged to a growing US trade battle with other top global economies.

Bank shares jumped after US lenders cleared the second part of the Federal Reserve’s stress test, sending the sector 1.2 per cent higher after it broke a 13-day losing streak on Thursday.

Wells Fargo led the gains, surging 4.6 per cent, while Citigroup, M&T Bank and a host of other banks were up 1.0 per cent or more, reports Reuters.

Nike also pushed US benchmark indexes higher after the world’s largest sneaker maker surged as much as 12 per cent to a record peak on a strong earnings report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 204.63 points, or 0.85 per cent, to 24,420.68, the S&P 500 gained 17.48 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 2,733.79 and the Nasdaq Composite added 41.61 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 7,545.29.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.94 per cent.

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.8 per cent at its close, while Germany’s trade-sensitive DAX jumped 1.1 per cent.

Asian stocks also rose, the Chinese yuan suffered its worst month on record, losing 3.0 per cent against the dollar in June as investors pulled money from a market likely to suffer from higher barriers to trade.

The US dollar slipped to a three-day low against the euro while the yield curve between two-year and 10-year US notes flattened to 31 basis points, the flattest since 2007.

Oil prices extended gains to fresh highs on a tighter market as US sanctions against Iran threatened to remove a substantial volume of crude oil from world markets amid rising demand.

US crude futures settled up 0.95 per cent at $74.15 per barrel. Brent was last at $79.44, up 2.04 per cent on the day.

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