London — Stocks, bond yields and commodities steamed higher on Thursday while the dollar tumbled, as investors suddenly seemed to forget the inflation fears blamed for a brutal market sell-off in recent weeks. Economists were struggling to explain the turnaround except for the argument that historically it’s not unusual for stocks and bond market borrowing costs to rise in tandem with a rapidly expanding economy. Some just blamed the weather and time of year. They speculated that strong US inflation data on Wednesday that many had predicted could reignite the rout was probably distorted. They also said the looming Chinese New Year may have caused Asian traders to square up. Whatever the reason, the animal spirits were back. Big gains for Wall Street and Asia overnight put MSCI’s 47-country world stocks index back in positive territory for the year and Europe’s main markets followed with 0.6%-1% gains. "For me it’s a clear indication that inflation is not as big a threat as people ma...
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