World stocks at 1-month high as bond yields soften, tech shares rally

World stocks climbed to a one-month high on Tuesday due to rally in technology shares and prospects of solid corporate earnings

By Saikat Chatterjee

LONDON (Reuters) - World stocks climbed to a one-month high on Tuesday as a rally in technology shares and prospects of solid corporate earnings helped counter concerns about elevated inflationary pressures.

Oil prices took a breather from their eye-catching rise in recent weeks while the worrying trend of flattening global government bond yield curves paused, helping investors recoup some of their appetite for risky assets.

An MSCI gauge of world stocks climbed to its highest levels since Sept. 17 while U.S. stock futures gained in early London trading. European stocks advanced 0.3%.

"It seems that better-than-expected earnings results from big U.S. banks last week encouraged some market participants to start this week by increasing their risk exposure, as they may have become somewhat more optimistic for the rest of the season," said Charalambos Pissouros, head of research at JFD group.

Macro data also offered some relief for global markets with weaker-than-expected growth data on China and U.S. industrial production numbers on Monday fuelling hopes that central banks won't rush to tighten monetary policy.

Bond markets welcomed the data where yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes falling nearly 6 bps from Monday's high while the U.S. dollar weakening broadly against its rivals to a three-week low.

Traders said a rally in non-dollar currencies was also due to some short position covering by hedge funds with the dollar's weakness on Tuesday also helping relieve some concerns of dollar funding shortages in the cross-currency swap markets.

But beneath the surface, concerns lurked. A BoFA monthly fund manager survey noted that cash levels among investors rose to a 12-month high signaling growing caution.

Analysts said a Wall Street rally overnight which saw Apple, Facebook and Microsoft all rising was behind a strong performance in stock markets.

Sterling, the Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar all hit month highs against the greenback in the Asian session, while the euro hit a two-week high against a broadly struggling dollar.

Brent crude rose 0.28% to $84.56 a barrel though the pace of gains in oil prices slowed. U.S. crude gained 0.44% to $82.8 a barrel. Brent crude prices are up by a third in two months.

Gold also gained on lower yields with the spot price rising 0.6% to $1,775.2 an ounce but remaining within its recent range.

 

(Reporting by Saikat Chatterjee; editing by Jason Neely)