Wall Street opens at record high on stimulus progress
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq opened at record highs on today on signs of progress towards more economic stimulus, while a closely watched jobs report confirmed the labor market was stabilising.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38 points, or 0.12 per cent, at the open to 31093.81.
The S&P 500 rose 6.6 points, or 0.17 per cent, at the open to 3878.3, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 47.1 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 13824.878 at the opening bell.
London had a far less explosive open. The FTSE 100 fell 0.84 per cent at the this morning at the end of an underwhelming week for London’s main market.
My mid-afternoon the FTSE 100 had fallen 5.33 points, down 83 per cent.
The FTSE 250 performed better, up 0.94 per cent by 2:50pm.
The Bank of Bank of England’s decision to hold interest rates caused the FTSE 100 to slide four points yesterday afternoon, as sterling jumped.
The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unanimously voted to keep rates at 0.1 per cent and its bond-buying programme at £895bn.
Sterling welcomed the decision and returned cable to $1.367 while two-year yields jumped from 0.1 per cent to 0.05 per cent. Historically when sterling rises the value of the FTSE index falls.
Lloyds Banking Group was this morning’s best FTSE 100 performer, up 5.32 per cent 10 minutes after markets opened. Natwest followed, up 5.18 per cent.
By comparison United Utilities fell at the market’s open by 2.80 per cent. Fresnillo, which has persistently languished at the bottom of the FTSE 100 this week, followed, down 2.63 per cent.
Elsewhere global shares traded near record highs on Friday, with Asian stocks taking their lead from Wall Street, as progress in vaccine distribution prompted bets on further normalisation in the global economy and an earnings recovery.
An index of the world’s major 50 markets, MSCI ACWI , rose 0.2 per cent to 667.90, coming within reach of a record high of 670.82 touched about two weeks ago. It was the fifth consecutive days of gains.
European stocks are expected to open on a firm footing, with euro stoxx futures up 0.3 per cent in early trade.
MSCI’s gauge of Asian shares outside Japan rose 0.6 per cent while Japan’s Nikkei rallied 1.5 per cent.