The Fed says the right things sending world stocks to best January on record
The Fed will pause its interest-rate rise campaign making European bulls push up bourses, but it’s all pain for the dollar
London — Soothing sounds from the US Federal Reserve propelled world stocks to their best January on record on Thursday, although having scored stellar gains this time last year only to flop spectacularly, traders were trying not to get too carried away. The Fed said it would pause its three-year interest-rate rise campaign while assessing the weakening of the economy. Crucially, it also said that the rundown of its balance sheet — or the stockpile of bonds it has accumulated over the past 10 years of quantitative easing — could slow too. That ticked all the boxes for financial markets and saw Europe’s bulls push London, Frankfurt and Paris up 0.7% to 1%, respectively, after Wall Street and then Asia had both charged overnight. Added together, it lifted the $4-trillion MSCI world stocks index, which tracks 47 countries, up 0.5% and for the 20th day out of the last 23. For January, it is up more than 7.2%, which is its best January since the index began in 1988 and the best performan...
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