By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A global stock index reached a record high on Friday following China’s stimulus boost, while Treasury yields dipped as U.S. inflation data lifted expectations of an outsized interest rate cut at the Federal Reserve’s November policy meeting.
The S&P 500 was slightly lower in late afternoon trading.
The yen firmed against the dollar after Japan’s former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba looked set to become the next prime minister.
The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s favored inflation measure, rose 0.1% in August after an unrevised 0.2% gain in July. Economists had forecast PCE inflation rising 0.1%. In the 12 months through August, the PCE price index increased 2.2% after rising 2.5% in July.
The U.S. rate futures market has priced in a 54% chance of a 50 basis points cut in November, up from about 49% before the data’s release, according to LSEG calculations. For the next two meetings in November and December, the futures market now expects nearly 80 bps in policy easing.
The Fed kicked off its latest easing cycle on Sept. 18 with a 50 basis point cut in interest rates.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 4.2 basis points to 3.747%, from 3.789% late on Thursday.
“(Fed Chair Jerome) Powell can breathe a little sigh of relief. After pushing for a 50 bps cut instead of a more conventional 25 bps cut the personal income and spending data so far vindicates that decision,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.
U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies jumped on the latest series of stimulus measures from Beijing to boost the domestic economy.
Europe’s benchmark STOXX 600 index closed at a record high, and the Dow and the MSCI global stock index also hit record intraday highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 200.95 points, or 0.48%, to 42,376.06. The S&P 500 fell 2.66 points, or 0.05%, to 5,742.71 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 64.51 points, or 0.35%, to 18,125.78.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 1.50 points, or 0.18%, to 852.19 and earlier hit a record high. The STOXX 600 index rose 0.47%.
China’s blue chips jumped 4.5%, bringing their weekly rise to 15.7%, the most since November 2008. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also gained 3.6% and was up 13% for the week, its best performance since 1998.
China’s central bank lowered interest rates and injected liquidity into the banking system, and more fiscal measures are expected to be announced before week-long Chinese holidays starting on Oct. 1.
Japan’s Ishiba won the leadership contest of the country’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a narrow victory.
Ishiba is a critic of past monetary stimulus and told Reuters the central bank was “on the right policy track” with rate hikes thus far. Markets had been largely expecting a win for hardline nationalist Sanae Takaichi, a vocal opponent of further interest rate hikes, pricing in loose monetary and fiscal policies and a weaker yen over the past week.
Against the Japanese yen, the dollar weakened 1.86% to 142.1.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.19% to 100.41, with the euro down 0.13% at $1.1162.
Aluminium prices in London touched a 16-week high on fund buying triggered by the latest economic stimulus measures in top metals consumer China.
Three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange was 0.4% higher at $2,623 per metric ton in official open-outcry trading after hitting $2,659, the highest since June 6.
U.S. crude rose 51 cents to settle at $68.18 a barrel and Brent edged up 38 cents to $71.98 per barrel.
(Additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak in New York; Editing by Kim Coghill, Kirsten Donovan and Richard Chang)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibilty for its content.