Stocks in Europe and the United States rose as fears about inflation abated and the latest euro zone PMI data showed positive performance.
As of press time, Dow futures are up 0.5%, S & P 500 futures are up 0.4%, and Nasdaq futures are up 0.4%.
The FTSE 100th index in the UK rose 0.1 per cent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.4 per cent and France's CAC-40 index rose 0.2 per cent.
Yields on 10-year Treasuries fell slightly. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.618%. The yield on the 30-year Treasury note fell to 2.323%.
The dollar is still on the defensive as US bond yields fall, and the dollar index continues to wobble below the 90 mark after a sharp fall yesterday.
Spot gold maintained its upward trend, hitting just $1880, not far from its previous more than four-month high of 1890. Gold is expected to rise for a third straight week as the dollar continues to fall, as investors weigh inflation and signs of economic recovery.
The minutes of Wednesday's Fed meeting showed that some policy makers were open to scaling back bond purchases, and most traders had shrugged off concerns and instead focused on the Fed's loose stance. Meanwhile, initial claims for unemployment benefits in the US fell to their lowest level since the pandemic last week, indicating a steady improvement in the job market as continuing business restrictions were lifted.
With regard to the minutes of the Fed meeting, analyst Giles Coghlan pointed out two main points:
First, supply chain bottlenecks and input shortages may not be resolved soon. In this case, these factors may put upward pressure on prices for the rest of the year. Importantly, the Fed may be more patient with rising inflation.
The second is the market reaction to this sentence: "several participants suggested that if the economy continued to make rapid progress towards the committee's goals, it might be appropriate to start discussing plans to adjust the pace of asset purchases at some point in future meetings."
The Fed's statement is self-evident. "at some point in the future" will be relevant.
Dallas Fed Chairman Kaplan said on Thursday that as the U.S. economy improves and withstands the impact of the epidemic, the Fed's (FED) should consider reducing support to the economy as soon as possible. Initial jobless claims fell further below 500000 last week, but unemployment surged in early May, which could lower expectations that job growth is expected to accelerate this month.
One trader said, "US employment has not improved significantly, FED will not exit, the trend of the US index is still downward, but it feels like the dollar is also near the bottom, so take a look at the employment data later."
"the global market was, is and will be flooded with cheap dollars," Societe Generale said.Kit Juckes, a bank strategist, said. "as long as the Fed is just talking about retrenchment, government bonds are likely to remain in the range, and the direction of least resistance to the dollar is to fall, albeit slowly."
This trading day, the market focused on the U. S. May Markit manufacturing and service PMI.
At present, the market expects that the initial PMI of Markit service industry in the United States will be 64.4 in May, and the initial PMI of Markit manufacturing industry will be 60.1.
Focus stocks
TeslaRose 3% before the session, CEO Musk said Tesla was about to set up business in Russia.
Novax Pharmaceutical rose 4% before the market, and plans to produce COVID-19 vaccine in Australia.
Virgin GalaxyIt was up more than 5% before trading, announcing that the VSS spaceship would test fly in the near future.
Elegant musicAt one point, technology rose more than 15% before trading, and the company announced that it would buy back $150 million worth of shares in response to Gotham City's short-selling report.
bilibili(BILI.O) rose 2% before trading after the Hang Seng Index announced that bilibili (09626.HK) Hong Kong stocks would be included in the Hang Seng Technology Index.