By Chris Prentice and Samuel Indyk
NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -Global equities rose on Thursday as upbeat earnings, growing hopes for a ceasefire in Ukraine and expectations for U.S. rate cuts boosted sentiment, while oil prices steadied on news of a meeting between the Russian and U.S. presidents.
Prices of gold, seen as a safe haven in volatile times, touched a two-week high.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 0.45% to 937.40. Japanese shares hit a record high.
The Bank of England cut interest rates but four of its nine policymakers, worried about inflation, voted to keep rates unchanged.
The split vote suggested the BoE’s run of rate cuts might be nearing an end. Sterling was up 0.38% after the decision.
“The vote split is clearly a lot more hawkish than I was expecting,” said Dominic Bunning, head of G10 FX strategy at Nomura.
Higher U.S. tariffs on imports from dozens of countries kicked in on Thursday, raising the average U.S. import duty to the highest in a century.
Investors largely shook off U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff volleys, including an additional 25% levy on U.S. imports from India over purchases of Russian oil and a threatened 100% duty on U.S. imports of chips.
“It’s surprising that everything that gets thrown at the market that it just continues to melt-up,” said Eddie Kennedy, head of bespoke discretionary fund management at Marlborough.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 1.04%, while Europe’s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 1.06%.
Plans for a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine also helped sentiment in European equities and underpinned the euro.
“It (a ceasefire) would be an extra positive,” said Emmanuel Cau, Barclays head of European equity strategy.
The S&P 500 rose 0.24% to 6,360.17 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.72% to 21,321.53, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.32% to 44,051.04.
“Wall Street seems to have gotten its mojo back,” Capital.com analyst Kyle Rodda wrote in a note.
“However, there are persistent risks to the downside. Downside surprises in official data are increasing,” he said. “Valuations are also stretched, with forward price to earnings hovering around the highest in four years. And trade uncertainty persists.”
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed up 1.03%, as Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.65%.
Taiwan’s stock benchmark jumped as much as 2.6% to a more than one-year peak. Shares in chipmaker TSMC, which this year announced additional investment in its U.S. production facilities and so is expected to be relatively unscathed by the U.S. tariff on imported chips, soared to a record high.
The U.S. dollar gained against other currencies on expectations of easier policy from the Federal Reserve, stoked both by some disappointing macroeconomic data and expectations Trump will install new picks on the board who are likely to share his dovish views.
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes fell 0.9 basis points to 4.223%, from 4.232% late on Wednesday.
In commodities, spot gold rose 0.58% to $3,387.11 an ounce.
Global benchmark oil prices steadied, with Brent crude futures down 0.07% to $66.84 per barrel and U.S. crude flat.
(Reporting by Samuel Indyk and Kevin Buckland; Editing by and Susan Fenton, Kirsten Donovan)
