Stocks rise globally, dollar gains
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World shares rose with the dollar and Treasury yields on Thursday after US President Donald Trump outlined a trade agreement with Britain the day after the US Federal Reserve took a wait-and-see stance on interest rates.
In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin gained 4.83% to $101,440.22. Ethereum rose 14.72% to $2,063.23.
The US-British trade agreement was the first deal announced since Trump kicked off a 90-day pause on tariffs imposed on many US trading partners a month ago to give his administration time to negotiate with other countries.
Investors are also awaiting planned talks between US and Chinese officials in Switzerland during the weekend, potentially a first step in dialing down the damaging trade war between the world's two biggest economies.
While investors have been enthusiastic about any signals from the Trump administration that it was in trade talks over the past month, they had been showing signs of frustration this week over the lack of concrete details.
"Investors are relieved that there is some progress being made in trade deals," said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management, adding that "it seems like the administration is moving in the right direction."
And Goldman said the US-British agreement, while still being worked on, "provides a little optimism going into the weekend negotiations with China."
On Wall Street, indexes extended gains after the trade announcement. At 1551 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 573.16 points, or 1.39%, to 41,685.11, the S&P 500 rose 77.14 points, or 1.37%, to 5,708.56 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 311.92 points, or 1.76%, to 18,050.09. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 5.72 points, or 0.68%, to 849.75 while the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.44.
Investors were also still digesting the US Federal Reserve's policy update from Wednesday, when it left its interest rates in a 4.25%-4.5% range for a third straight meeting.
The US central bank had warned that risks of higher inflation and higher unemployment had risen as it navigates economic uncertaintly caused by Trump's trade policies.
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