By Samuel Indyk and Stella Qiu
LONDON (Reuters) – Global stocks rose on Wednesday as a flurry of new policies from U.S. President Donald Trump and robust corporate earnings bolstered investor optimism, while tariff uncertainty kept the dollar near a two-week low.
Netflix shares surged almost 15% in pre-market trading as the streaming giant added a record number of subscribers last quarter, enabling it to increase prices for most service plans in the United States and other countries.
Late on Tuesday, Trump announced that OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle will form a joint venture called Stargate and invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Shares of SoftBank surged 11% in Tokyo, while Oracle gained over 8% in pre-market.
That helped lift Nasdaq futures 0.8%. S&P 500 futures also rose 0.5%.
The threat of U.S. import tariffs lingers in the background, with Trump again vowing to hit the European Union with fresh levies and saying his administration was discussing imposing a 10% tariff on goods from China on Feb. 1.
But there was some relief as many investors and foreign capitals had expected tariffs to be among a raft of executive orders Trump signed in his first day in office.
“Trump seems more focused at home and Europe’s got a stay of execution,” said Eddie Kennedy, head of bespoke discretionary fund management at Marlborough.
“Therefore, I think it makes sense to have a little rally.”
European shares have so far taken the threat of tariffs in their stride.
The pan-continental STOXX 600 index rose 0.7% on Wednesday to a record intraday high. Germany’s DAX up 1.1%, is also at a record, having gained almost 7% year-to-date.
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 1.6%, tracking broad gains on Wall Street. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, however, fell 0.2% as drops in Chinese and Hong Kong stocks offset broad gains elsewhere.
Chinese blue chips fell 0.9% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost 1.8%.
That left MSCI’s broadest measure of global stocks up 0.2%.
TREASURY YIELDS STEADY
The temporary tariff relief has supported a pullback in Treasury yields. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield, was little changed in Europe at 4.5704%, having dipped 4 bps on Tuesday to 4.53%, its lowest since Jan. 2.
They were still up around a percentage point since the Federal Reserve started cutting rates in mid-September, reflecting a strong economy and dwindling prospects for large Fed reductions this year.
Futures imply a total easing of 37 bps from the Fed this year, with the first rate cut not fully priced in until July.
“With economic activity and job growth still resilient, the Fed has an opportunity to be very patient while it assesses the policies of the new administration,” said Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist at SGH Macro Advisors.
The U.S. dollar index was at 107.97, pinned near a two-week low of 107.86, having finished a choppy session on Tuesday little changed.
The euro was little changed at $1.0430, just off a two-and-a-half week top of $1.0435, while the Japanese yen slipped 0.1% to 155.74 per dollar.
Bitcoin remained just off its record high of $109,071, having rallied 4% on Tuesday as the top U.S. markets regulator created a task force to develop a regulatory framework for crypto assets.
“The road for bitcoin to reach $120,000 is plausible,” said Billy Leung, investment strategist at Global X.
Oil prices were inching higher, having fallen more than 2% on Tuesday on Trump’s plans to boost U.S. energy production. Brent crude rose 0.5% to $79.66 a barrel, while U.S. crude was up 0.4% at $76.15 a barrel. [O/R]
Gold also resumed its climb to its previous record high. Spot prices rose 0.5% to a 2-1/2 month high of $2,759 per ounce, having jumped 1.4% on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Samuel Indyk in London, Stella Qiu in Sydney, Tom Westbrook in Singapore and Koh Gui Qing in New York; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Kim Coghill)
