By Chibuike Oguh and Elizabeth Howcroft
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global stocks rose in choppy trading on Friday, on track for a weekly gain, driven by positive sentiment on Wall Street following key central bank decisions.
The Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, the first easing since December, while Norway and Canada also cut rates.
On Wall Street, all three indexes closed at record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.37% to 46,315.27, the S&P 500 advanced 0.49% to 6,664.36, and the Nasdaq Composite firmed 0.72% to 22,631.48. All three also hit record highs the day before.
European shares finished down 0.16%, and for the week were down 0.13%.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.57% after the Bank of Japan decided to start selling its holdings of risky assets. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe hit a fresh record high of 982.29, adding nearly 1% for the week.
Investors are betting that central bank rate cuts will boost stocks further.
“The market for the past several weeks has all been focused on and relying on the Fed meeting and the Fed’s decision, and there was enough in the decision to leave everyone just slightly disappointed though basically satisfied,” said Michael Farr, chief executive of investment advisory firm Farr, Miller & Washington in Washington.
The Fed stopped short of endorsing market expectations for a clear string of rate cuts, emphasizing a meeting-by-meeting, data-dependent approach. The Fed’s tone, along with the wide range of views within the U.S. central bank, disappointed some investors, who had hoped the stock market would be boosted by a rapid shift to lower rates, analysts said.
“Markets have done exceptionally well and now markets are looking for the next driver or the next bit of news,” Farr said. “I think as we probably get into earnings season in October, those reports will be more important than ever because we need to see and the Fed needs to see if tariffs are indeed making their way into bottom-line profits.”
The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 2.5 basis points to 4.129%. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Fed, rose 0.6 basis points to 3.574%.
“The short-term momentum is clearly higher and we are playing the market to the upside because that’s what the short-term momentum is telling you,” said Bill Strazzullo, partner and chief market strategist at Bell Curve Trading in Boston.
“But I think it’s a lot more complicated now because the Fed clearly has chosen to err on the side of the weaker labor market so that’s talking about more rate cuts.”
Following their first call in three months, U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping made progress on a TikTok agreement and would meet face-to-face in six weeks in South Korea to discuss trade, illicit drugs and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A stopgap spending bill that would avert an October 1 government shutdown fell short in the U.S. Senate on Friday. The bill had been passed by the House of Representatives.
The U.S. dollar index rose for a third straight session, up 0.33% to 97.67, but was still set to notch a third straight week of losses.
The dollar strengthened 0.4% to 0.795 against the Swiss franc, but was down 0.03% to 147.97 against the Japanese yen.
The euro fell 0.35% against the dollar to $1.1745.
The British pound fell 0.64% to $1.3467 .
The Bank of England kept rates on hold on Thursday, but slowed the pace at which it is unloading the government bonds it purchased in previous crises.
Oil prices settled lower as traders’ worries about fuel demand outweighed the typical boost from a U.S. rate cut.
Brent crude futures fell 1.1% to settle at $66.68 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures lost 1.4%, to $62.68.
Gold was up 1.04% at $3,681.79, notching its fifth straight week of gains.
(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh in New York and Elizabeth Howcroft; Editing by Jane Merriman, Chizu Nomiyama, Leslie Adler and Richard Chang)
