icy, pushing world stocks to new 18-month highs.
"For central banks, everyone is expecting dovish moves, not only for US but also for Europe and even Japan," said Christophe Barraud, chief economist at Market Securities in Paris. "Everybody is a optimistic for quick central bank moves." Separately, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated his call for the United States to match what he says are efforts by China and Europe to manipulate currencies and pump money into their economies.
The action in bond markets buoyed stocks. MSCI's all-country world index eked out a 0.1 percent gain after hitting its highest since February last year a day earlier. Expectations for rate cuts by the Fed saw the dollar drift away from recent highs, though currencies were by and large quiet in early European trade.The euro traded at $1.1284, a touch higher than its two-week low of $1.1268 touched on Wednesday.