LONDON: World shares rose to new all-time highs overnight and European indexes strengthened, with market sentiment generally upbeat on the prospect of fiscal stimulus and vaccine rollouts and ahead of a speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
The dollar slipped slightly against a basket of currencies, down 0.2per cent at a two-week low of 90.263. "China has been able to recover quickly because it controlled the pandemic quickly, which enabled it to fill the gap caused by production bottlenecks in countries where COVID-19 restrictions were still in place," Marcin Adamczyk, head of emerging markets debt at NN Investment Partners, wrote in a note.
Earnings also contributed to market optimism. Japan's Toyota hiked its full-year earnings forecasts by 54per cent to a record US$19 billion.After a slight pullback on Wall Street on Tuesday, S&P 500 futures pointed towards a stronger open, up 0.3per cent.