European, Asian stocks rise on US stimulus hope

Gulf Today Report 

European stocks jumped on Thursday as investors remain hopeful for a large US stimulus plan under the new administration while awaiting clues from the European Central Bank for clues on the eurozone’s economic health. 

The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.4%, leisure, travel, tech and automakers led the gains. 

Dhaval Joshi, strategist at BCA Research said, "in the past few days, the market has been breathing a sigh of relief that we had a safe transfer of power from Trump to Biden." 

As the market awaits outcome of the ECB meeting, Eurozone stocks gained 0.3%. It is expected that monetary policy will be kept easy and unchanged. 

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Asian stocks 

Asian stocks advanced on Thursday as investors remain hopeful the incoming Biden administration will inject a massive stimulus package to aid the economy. 

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan touched record highs and was last up 0.92%. 

Chinese blue-chips added 1.75%, Australian shares climbed 0.79% and Seoul's Kospi rose 1.54%.

Japan's Nikkei was up 0.82%, less than 1% off three-decade highs reached last week. 

Following Joe Biden’s inauguration, Asian markets are showing relief over a smooth transition of power and expectations that the huge US stimulus will aid global assets. 

Kay Van-Peterson, global macro strategist at Saxo Capital Markets said "that means that this market should be way, way, way higher as a whole and we're going to get there. We're entering this regime of even more accelerated asset class inflation."