Global stock markets rose on Wednesday, as U.S. consumer confidence rebounded in December, and the dollar regained stability after the Bank of Japan rocked markets with a surprise decision to loosen its grip on government bond yields.
Reporting by Lawrence Delevingne in Boston and Amanda Cooper in London. Additional reporting by Naomi Rovnick in London and Tom Westbrook and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore. Editing by Alexander Smith, Barbara Lewis and Jonathan Oatis
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), the S&P 500 (.SPX), and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) all gained about 1.5%. They were boosted by The Conference Board’s improving consumer confidence index, and stronger-than-expected earnings at sportswear giant Nike NKE.N and delivery behemoth FedEx Corp FDX.N.
On Tuesday, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) widened its trading band for 10-year government bond yields from 25 basis points (bps) either side of zero to 50 bps.
That pushed the yen to its biggest one-day gain against the U.S. dollar in 24 years. The currency had fallen for most of the year because of Japan’s low yields, as well as selling in the Japanese stock market and a sell-off for bonds around the world.
