NEW YORK, Feb 8 — Global equities rose and the dollar fell yesterday, reversing earlier moves, as the market perceived comments by the Federal Reserve chair to be dovish, even after he reiterated fighting inflation will require higher interest rates and more time.
“He seems to reiterate that fact that in his view inflation is cresting,” said Rick Meckler, partner at Cherry Lane Investments in New Vernon, New Jersey. MSCI’s gauge of stock performance in 47 countries rose 0.95 per cent, while earlier in Europe the broad STOXX 600 index closed up 0.23 per cent, helped by some upbeat earnings reports.
“The Street hasn’t quite figured that out in terms of what the implication is for the full year,” Orlando said. “You have the sword of Damocles hanging over the market’s head during a period seasonally where the market tends to struggle anyway.” The dollar index fell 0.21 per cent from one-month highs, while the Japanese yen gained 1.21 per cent to 131.08 per dollar after unusually strong Japanese wage data.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ended up 0.2 per cent, but Australia’s S&P/ASX200 slipped nearly 0.5 per cent after the Reserve Bank of Australia delivered its ninth consecutive rate hike. Australia’s cash rate now stands at 3.35 per cent, a decade high.