US Federal Reserve speakers echoed chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday in saying that interest rates are set to go higher
London — Stocks, crude oil and gold rose while the dollar eased on Thursday as investors sifted through earnings reports, German inflation data and Federal Reserve policymaker speeches for clues on how many interest rate hikes lay ahead.
Sweden’s central bank on Thursday raised its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 3%, and forecast further tightening in the northern hemisphere spring. German consumer prices, harmonised to compare with other EU countries, rose by a less-than-anticipated 9.2% on the year in January, helping to reassure markets that prices have peaked.The MSCI all country stock index was up 0.2%, building on gains of about 7.5% so far in 2023 after a loss of 20% in 2022.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.6%, after being down earlier in the session, although Japan's Nikkei remained slightly weaker. Overnight, sentiment took a hit as Alphabet shares fell 7.7% after its new AI chatbot Bard delivered an incorrect answer in a promotional video, dragging the S&P 500 and Nasdaq lower by more than 1%.
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