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| - Leading stock markets mostly rose Thursday as traders welcomed blockbuster earnings and after the Federal Reserve painted a rosy picture of the US economic outlook. 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. "Strong numbers out of the US technology sector, together with the US Federal Reserve's latest attempts to allay fears of any imminent rate rise, laid the foundations for the FTSE 100 (in London) to mount its latest assault on the 7,000 level," noted AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould. After a shaky couple of weeks on trading floors, global equities appear to be finding their feet again and getting ready to push to new highs as vaccines are rolled out, lockdowns eased and economies get back on track. And while there have been fears the expected surge in activity in this year could fan inflation and 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. "The US will need to see a couple of blowout nonfarm payroll reports, herd immunity reached before the June meeting, and inflation above 3.5 percent for the Fed to be willing to start talking about tapering," said OANDA's Edward Moya. And markets strategist Louis Navellier added: "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. In Europe, there were bumper first-quarter profits for British oil major Shell and French peer Total. London - FTSE 100: UP 0.6 percent at 7,008.34 points Frankfurt - DAX 30: DOWN 0.3 percent at 15,251.84 Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 6,340.25 EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.2 percent at 4,023.74 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 New York - Dow: DOWN 0.5 percent at 33,820.38 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.2119 from $1.2091 at 2130 GMT Pound/dollar: UP at $1.3933 from $1.3913 Euro/pound: UP at 86.94 pence from 86.90 pence Dollar/yen: UP at 108.99 yen from 108.70 yen Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.6 percent at $68.35 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.6 percent at $64.87 per barrel dan-bcp/rl
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