The Bank cut official interest rates to a new record low of 0.25% from 0.5% and signalled they would be reduced further in coming months.
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Asian stocks rose Friday following a British interest rate cut as investors looked ahead to USA data that are expected to show faster job growth in July.
The Bank of England on Thursday slashed interest rates to a record low 0.25 percent and announced a vast stimulus package to combat economic fallout from Britain’s looming European Union exit.
The BoE will also buy £10 billion of corporate debt, while it also unveiled a new scheme worth up to £100 billion to encourage banks to lend to households and businesses.
Benchmark US crude rose 1.10 dollars (83p), or 2.7%, to 41.93 dollars (£31.99) a barrel in NY after a 3% climb on Wednesday.
Global benchmark Brent crude futures slipped 0.5 per cent to $44.07, heading for a weekly rise of 3.8 per cent.
Further policy loosening in the United Kingdom helped push European shares up 0.6 per cent, while the dollar rose 0.2 per cent against a currency basket, drawing strength from a stronger-than-expected ADP jobs number on Wednesday. While it still predicts 2 percent growth this year thanks to strong growth before the vote, it slashed its forecast for next year to just 0.8 percent from its May estimate of 2.3 percent. It estimated that lower bound to be “close to, but a little above, zero”. Its stock lost $5.90, or 8.5 percent, to $63.59.
Theme park operator SeaWorld said its revenue fell in the second quarter as guest numbers from Latin America dropped off amid economic turmoil there and bad weather.
Callaway Golf jumped after sporting goods giant Nike surprised Wall Street by saying it will stop making golf equipment like clubs, golf balls and bags. “But the higher the Australian dollar goes, the risk of RBA cutting rates will increase”, Teo said, adding that such prospects could offer an opportunity to sell into the Aussie’s rally. Heating oil added 4 cents to $1.33 a gallon. That compared with prior predictions of 2.3 percent for both 2017 and 2018.
Consolidation was the inevitable theme of the Bank of England rate decision with the FTSE index unable to gain any support from gains in Asian equities as it opened slightly lower and traded in a narrow range around 6,630. In the eurozone, Frankfurt stocks won 0.6 percent and Paris gained 0.2 percent in value. Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished 1.1 percent higher.
The dollar bounced back a bit from Monday’s five-week low against a basket of six major currencies as investors looked to Friday’s payrolls data.
Elsewhere in commodities, December gold rose $2.70 to US$1,367.40 an ounce, while September copper fell $2.45 cents to US$2.17 a pound and September natural gas retreated half a cent to $2.83 per mmBTU.
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CURRENCY: The dollar declined to 101.13 yen from Thursday’s 101.21 yen.
