Stock exchange
World shares rallied to a record peak on Wednesday following an overnight surge that saw the Dow Jones benchmark crack 30,000 for the first time as investors cheered a dramatically improved global outlook.
The formal start of U.S. president-elect Joe Bidens transition to the White House and increasing confidence a COVID-19 vaccine would be ready soon ushered in renewed appetite for global shares.
After weeks of waiting, President Donald Trumps administration on Monday cleared the way for Biden to prepare for the start of his administration, giving him access to briefings and funding.
The main thing now is that it has become official that the Biden administration will start. And we have ample liquidity from the worlds central banks, said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
I expect the honeymoon between financial markets and the Biden administration and stocks bull trend could continue until around his inauguration in January, he said, though expects reality checks to follow his swearing in.
Reports that Biden planned to nominate former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary a move that could shift the focus heavily toward efforts to tackle growing economic inequality also cheered markets.
That pushed MSCIs broadest gauge of world stocks up 0.1 per cent to a record level.
In Asia, Japans Nikkei rallied 0.5 per cent to a 29-year high while MSCIs index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gave up early gains to trade down 0.2 per cent as Chinese shares were capped by worries about rising debt defaults.
Euro Stoxx 50 futures of euro zone shares were little changed in early trade.
On Wall Street on Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.54 per cent to 30,046.24 while the S