World shares gain after Wall Street cruises to more records

AP :

World shares were mostly higher on Friday after Wall Street rose to records following better-than-expected updates on the economy and a mixed set of profit reports from big U.S. companies.
In early European trading, Germany’s DAX was up 0.4 per cent at 24,479.86. In Paris, the CAC 40 rose 0.6 per cent to 7,869.86, while Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.2 per cent to 8,987.81.
The future for S and P 500 rose 0.1 per cent while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average also edged 0.1 per cent higher.
In Asian trading Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 0.2 per cent lower at 39,819.11 as traders stayed on the sidelines ahead of an election for the upper house of parliament on Sunday that could wipe out the ruling coalition’s upper house majority.
The government reported that core inflation excluding volatile food and energy prices rose to 3.3 per cent in June from a year earlier, slowing from 3.7 per cent in May but still above the central bank’s 2 per cent target.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added 1.2 per cent to 24,825.66, while the Shanghai Composite index advanced 0.5 per cent to 3,534.48.
Taiwan’s Taiex climbed 1.2 per cent, helped by a 2.2 per cent gain for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. On Thursday, TSMC reported its net income soared nearly 61 per cent in the last quarter from a year earlier. The world’s largest contract chip maker said it’s seeing strong demand from artificial-intelligence and other customers. On Thursday, TSMC’s stock that trades in the United States rose 3.4 per cent.
Australia’s S and P/ASX 200 rose 1.4 per cent to 8,757.20, and the Kospi in South Korea shed 0.1 per cent to 3,188.07. India’s Sensex lost 0.6 per cent.
“Asia’s riding the global rally wave, AI fever refuses to break, and even the Fed is making soothing noises,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a commentary. “But underneath all the sunshine is a market running hot, with volatility on sale and positioning still cautious.”
On Thursday, the S and P 500 climbed 0.5 per cent to top its all-time high set a week ago, closing at 6,297.36. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5 per cent to 44,484.49, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.7 per cent to its own record set the day before, climbing to 20,885.65.

Trading was calmer than on Wednesday, when President Donald Trump rocked financial markets by saying he had discussed the “concept” of firing the chair of the Federal Reserve, though he said he was unlikely to do so. Such a move could help Wall Street get the lower interest rates investors love, but would also risk a weakened Fed unable to make the unpopular moves needed to keep inflation under control.

Treasury yields were mixed following several better-than-expected reports on the economy.

One said that shoppers upped their spending at U.S. retailers by more last month than economists expected. Such spending, along with a relatively solid jobs market, has helped keep the U.S. economy out of a recession.

A separate report said that fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, which could be a signal of limited layoffs. A third suggested unexpectedly strong growth in manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region.

Such solid data could keep the Federal Reserve on pause when it comes to interest rates. The Fed has been keeping rates steady this year, after cutting them at the end of last year. The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, has been insisting that he wants to wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs will affect the economy and inflation before the Fed makes its next move.

That’s because while lower interest rates could boost the economy and prices for investments, they would also give inflation more fuel. Prices may already be starting to feel the upward effects of tariffs, based on the latest data. In other dealings early Friday, U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 84 cents to $67.07 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 80 cents to $70.32 per barrel. The U.S. dollar rose to 148.72 Japanese yen from 148.61 yen. The euro rose to $1.1640 from $1.1596.