Stocks soar as signs of US economic strength offset fear of Trump trade war
London/Sydney — World stocks surged to a two-week high on Monday after strong US jobs data at the end of last week helped take the edge off investors’ concerns about the potential outbreak of a trade war between the US and other major economies. European shares shot up across the board, following their Asian counterparts, while emerging market currencies strengthened as investors bought up so-called riskier assets and sold "safe haven" securities such as gold and government bonds. Markets have been cheering Friday’s US nonfarm payrolls data, which showed a hefty 313,000 rise in jobs but also revealed that annual growth in average hourly earnings had slowed to 2.6% after spiking in January. This suggested that the world’s largest economy is experiencing a combination of high growth and low inflation, referred to in the market as a "Goldilocks" trend; giving investors an incentive to buy assets such as equities and high-yield bonds without having to fear tighter central bank policy. "...
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