| schema:articleBody
| - US stock indices struck new highs Thursday as traders welcomed blockbuster earnings, a soothing message from the Federal Reserve and more data pointing towards a solid economic recovery. Traders reacted also to President Joe Biden's first address to Congress where he laid out another huge spending plan aimed at helping American families and paid for with taxes on the wealthy. Data showed that the US economy accelerated in the first quarter to an annualised growth rate of 6.4 percent, "The key takeaway from the report is that it is indicative of an economy that is bouncing back sharply with the help of stimulus payments and reopening activity that has been catalyzed by Covid vaccines," said analyst Patrick O'Hare at Briefing.com. Meanwhile, first time unemployment claims fell a new pandemic-era low of 553,000 last week. That helped US stocks jump at the the opening bell, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite striking new record highs. While previously strong data has fanned investor fears of a spike in inflation that could force central banks to step back from their loose monetary policies, the Fed said Wednesday it was ready to stay the course. After its latest meeting the bank upgraded its outlook for the world's top economy, while its boss Jerome Powell said that the expected spike in inflation will be temporary owing to last year's low base of comparison and is not likely to need policy action. "An episode of one-time price increases as the economy reopens is not the same thing as, and is not likely to lead to, persistently higher year-over-year inflation," he said in response to a question from AFP. He also said it was not yet time to start talking about tapering its vast bond-buying programme that has pumped trillions into the financial system. Markets strategist Louis Navellier said that "One observation about why the Fed is maintaining such a high level of conviction that inflation will not be long lasting is that the global reopening is not a synchronous economic event. "China, the US, and parts of Europe are experiencing late-stage pandemic growth, but this is not happening in several key developing and emerging markets, where Covid-19 data is surging, and their economies are still suffering." The upbeat mood was helped by forecast-beating earnings reports overnight from Apple and Facebook, two of Wall Street's biggest hitters, who essentially saw their profits double in the first quarter. That came after a similar strong release by Google. The three companies, along with Amazon, are among tech titans that have thrived as the pandemic accelerated a shift to working, learning, shopping and socialising online. South Korean giant Samsung also said Thursday it saw net profit jump by almost half in the first three months. Meanwhile, the price of a tonne of copper crossed the $10,000 level on Thursday for the first time since February 2011 thanks to strong demand in China and the weak dollar. The industrial metal is seen as an indicator for the general health of the economy by market analysts, which have dubbed it Dr. Copper. Its price has risen by more than a quarter since the start of the year as the global economy begins to shake off the Covid-19 pandemic. London - FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 7,005.20 points Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.4 percent at 15,228.36 Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 6,335.57 EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.1 percent at 4,019.09 New York - Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 34,007.54 Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.8 percent at 29,303.26 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.5 percent at 3,474.90 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: Closed for a holiday Euro/dollar: UP at $1.2117 from $1.2091 at 2130 GMT Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3955 from $1.3913 Euro/pound: DOWN at 86.86 pence from 86.90 pence Dollar/yen: UP at 109.17 yen from 108.70 yen Brent North Sea crude: UP 2.3 percent at $68.80 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.3 percent at $65.31 per barrel burs-rl/lth
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)