Asian markets up as North Korea tensions ease
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SINGAPORE: Asian stocks edged higher on Thursday as tensions between the United States and North Korea came off the boil, while the Federal Reserve’s concerns about weak US inflation weighed on the dollar.
European stocks look set for a weaker start, with financial spreadbetter CMC Markets expecting Britain’s FTSE 100 to open down 0.2 per cent, and Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 to start the day down 0.3 per cent.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.55 per cent.
US stock futures were about 0.1 per cent lower.
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The European Central Bank kept its stimulus package and interest rates unchanged on Thursday as it pledged once again that the pace of purchases under its pandemic bond-buying programme will be “significantly higher” during the second quarter.
ECB president Christine Lagarde held the pandemic emergency purchase programme (Pepp) at €1.85 trillion ($2.3 trillion), following a €500bn boost in December, and reiterated that it will run until at least March 2022, or “until it judges that the coronavirus crisis phase is over”.
Read More The Governing Council expects purchases under the Pepp over the current quarter to continue to be conducted at a significantly higher pace than during the first months of the year, the ECB said in a statement on Thursday, repeating its guidance from March.
Stocks Climb To Fresh Records As China Posts Blowout Q1 Growth
04/16/21 AT 5:08 PM
Global stocks rallied Friday, with major indices hitting new all-time highs, following data showing record economic growth in China and additional acceleration in the United States.
China saw expansion of 18.3 percent in the first quarter, boosted by a sharper-than-expected increase in retail sales.
The economic growth figure was the highest since records began three decades ago, enhanced by its chronically weak comparison figure from last year, though the reading was slightly below forecasts in an AFP survey. The national economy made a good start, National Bureau of Statistics spokeswoman Liu Aihua told reporters Friday.
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