Investors watch for US inflation figures, keeping world shares slightly higher
London — World shares inched higher on Tuesday, eking out limited gains as investors kept a wary eye on a US inflation reading later in the day that could offer clues on the pace of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes in 2018. The MSCI all-country world index of stocks, which tracks shares in 47 countries, was up less than 0.1%. The index has recovered about half its losses during a violent shake-out in stocks in February. The sell-off came after strong US wage numbers, which investors feared might feed into inflation and push the US central bank towards a faster pace of monetary tightening. US consumer price index (CPI) data was due at 12.30am GMT. "Today’s CPI inflation data is likely to add further colour to the US inflation picture; however, it probably won’t add any further clarity to the overall inflation outlook puzzle, given that the Fed doesn’t use CPI as its inflation benchmark," said Michael Hewson, chief markets analyst at CMC Markets in London. "Nonetheless it is still ...
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