MSCI’s all-country world equity index was last up 0.91 point, or 0.22 per cent, at 409.3.
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In Asia, stock markets traded mixed on Thursday, taking cues from USA stocks which closed near the flatline but still managed to make it further into record territory.
While profits of S&P companies are expected to have fallen 5 per cent in the second quarter, mirroring the first, analysts expect a return to growth throughout the second half of the year, according to Thomson Reuters data.
KEEPING SCORE: The Dow rose 123 points, or 0.7 percent, to 18,350 at 1:01 p.m.
Yields rose as expectations of new stimulus in Japan boosted stocks and reduced demand for safe haven bonds, and ahead of the Treasury Department’s auction of $20 billion in 10-year notes.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq posted similarly strong gains, and now is in positive territory for the year.
In Japan, the Nikkei Stock Average 225 rose 1.14%, Australia’s ASX All Ordinaries Index added 0.49% and South Korea’s Kospi Index rose 0.59%.
“A successful breakout usually results in a strong thrust higher off of the base”, he wrote in a report.
The broad-based S&P 500 set an all-time record high for the second consecutive day, rising 0.7 percent and closing at 2,152.14.
The Dow rose 24.45 points, or 0.1%, to 18,372.12, while the S&P 500 was marginally higher at 2152.43.
The S&P 500 inched up less than a point for a record finish of 2,152.43.
The dollar was last down 0.35 percent against the yen at 104.32 yen after hitting a more than two-week high of 104.97 yen on Tuesday.
Priceline, Expedia and TripAdvisor were down 1-2 percent, while Delta, Southwest and United Continental were also down 1-2 percent.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for a fresh round of fiscal stimulus after a victory for his ruling coalition in upper house elections, sending the yen lower and stocks higher. While he has released few details, investors are betting he’ll keep flooding the markets with money by expanding bond purchases using newly printed money in a program known as quantitative easing.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 93 cents to close at $45.68 a barrel in NY. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 1.7% to 21,224.74 and the Shanghai composite index jumped 1.8% to 3,049.38. The biggest percentage gainer was U.S Concrete (USCR), a small cap which advanced 1.3%.
Five of the 10 major S&P indexes were higher, led by a 0.6 percent rise in utilities.
CURRENCIES: The British pound rose to $1.3445 from $1.3345 a day earlier.
At the final bell, American benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded at 45.01 a barrel – a 3.7 percent decline, while global benchmark Brent crude was at 46.49 – a 4.2 percent fall.
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The dollar was last down 0.27 per cent at 104.41 yen, while spot gold recovered slightly from its lowest in almost two weeks.
