NEW YORK, Jan 10 — World stocks rallied yesterday to their highest levels since mid-December after China reopened its borders while benchmark Treasury yields drifted lower as investors scaled back expectations for further rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Wall Street’s benchmark indexes gave up broad earlier gains to finish mixed ahead of an expected speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell today and inflation data on Thursday. Global equities surged on Friday following US jobs data that showed a jump in the workforce and easing wage growth. This, along with data pointing to a US service sector contraction, was interpreted by investors as an indication the Fed could become less hawkish.
Money markets were pricing in a 25 per cent chance of a half-point US rate hike in February, down from around 50 per cent a month ago.The US dollar index was down around 0.7 per cent, near its lowest in seven months, after it dropped 1.2 per cent on Friday.