European shares and an index of global stock performance scaled new peaks while yields on U.S., Japanese and European government debt fell on Friday as investors embraced the easy monetary policies of major central banks.
Investor sentiment rose in Europe after the European Central Bank raised its growth and inflation projections on Thursday, and also renewed a pledge to keep stimulus flowing.
The pan-regional STOXX Europe 600 index rose 0.7% to a record close, posting its sixth straight session of gains and best weekly performance at 1.1% since early May.
The MSCI all-country world equity index, a benchmark that tracks shares in 50 countries, set a new intraday high and record close at 719.52, up 0.2% in a late-day surge that also lifted the S&P 500 to an all-time close.
Stocks on Wall Street seesawed most of the session near breakeven as investors bought tech stocks after shrugging off data on Thursday that showed year-on-year inflation spiked to 5.0% in May, a jump the Federal Reserve has said is transient.
Declining Treasury yields have confounded investors who see signs of inflation being more persistent than the Fed’s view that sharply rising consumer prices will be short-lived.
The FTSE MIB climbed up by 0.31% to 25,717.71. In the cash markets, the DAX futures Germany was trading up 0.78% Â to 15,693.17. CAC 40 futures in France rose by 083% to 6,600.60 while the FTSE 100 futures in the U.K. was up by 0.65% to 7,134.27, at the time of writing.
