Global shares cautiously higher after U.S. core inflation declines
By Naomi Rovnick and Stella Qiu
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Global shares inched higher on Friday after data showed the U.S. economy was growing robustly and a U.S. core inflation report signalled price pressures are continuing to abate.
MSCI's all-country equity gauge rose 0.2% following reassuring news on Thursday that the U.S. economy expanded at its fastest rate for almost two years in the third quarter, while the European Central Bank (ECB) also held interest rates steady.
Futures tracking Wall Street's tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index added 0.8% in response to Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) beating sales estimates. Europe's Stoxx 600 share index was 0.3% lower.
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury, which moves inversely to the price of the debt security and functions as a benchmark for global borrowing costs, rose 2 basis points (bps) to 4.845% after scaling 5% earlier in the week
A report on Friday showed U.S. core personal consumption expenditure, the U.S. Federal Reserve's favoured inflation measure, declined to 3.7% in September from 3.9% a month earlier.
Still, bond markets held off applauding the news ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate setting meeting next week and as oil prices climbed in response to geopolitical tensions.
«This is a bond market that at the moment doesn't need much of an excuse to fire a tantrum,» said Simon Harvey, head of FX analysis at Monex Europe.
«In the current environment, uncertainty for monetary policymakers has increased significantly,» added Martin Wolburg, senior economist at Generali (BIT:GASI) Investments.
Amid growing concerns that the Israel-Hamas conflict could spread, two U.S. fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on
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