World shares rose on Tuesday as technology giant Apple Inc’s biggest rise in over two months and oil’s march higher to near $50 a barrel boosted investor demand for riskier assets at the expense of safe-haven bonds.
MSCI’s index of global shares rose 0.2 percent .MIWD00000PUS, putting it on track for its second consecutive rise, something it has not managed in a month.
Europe’s major stock markets rose as much as 1 percent before easing back, following similar gains in Asia after Wall Street had also chalked up a 1 percent rise on Monday.
The rally lost some steam, however, and U.S. stock futures pared earlier gains to signal a rise of around 0.1 percent at the open on Wall Street.
“Markets are once again up on higher commodity prices. Nevertheless, we should not get carried away and chase the commodity complex higher as most of these markets are still very much over-supplied,” Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis, said.
Brent crude oil futures rose to their highest level in almost six months, within a few cents of breaking above $50 for the first time since Nov. 4, before drifting back below $49 by midday in Europe.
At 1100 GMT, the FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 0.5 percent at 1,321 points .FTEU3, with Germany’s DAX up 0.2 percent .GDAXI, France’s CAC 40 up 0.1 percent .FCHI and Britain’s FTSE 100 .FTSE gaining 0.5 percent.
The basic resources sector .SXPP was among the biggest sectoral gainers, up 1 percent.
Earlier in Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.9 percent, extending its recovery from a two-month low set on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei .N225 gained about 1.1 percent.
FOOL’S BLACK GOLD
Oil’s rise to six-month highs came as supply disruptions prompted long-time bear Goldman Sachs to issue a bullish assessment on near-term prices. Goldman has long warned of global storage hitting capacity and of another oil price crash to as low as $20 per barrel.
A combination of Nigerian, Venezuelan and other outages, declining U.S. production, and virtually frozen inflows of Canadian crude after wildfires in Alberta’s oil sands region all helped to lift oil prices.
“The oil market continues to make an even larger fool of most forecasters than other financial assets: having caught everyone out by plummeting, it is now catching us out by continuing to rise,” Rabobank analysts wrote.
Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose as high as $49.31 per barrel on Tuesday, after having risen 2.4 percent on Monday, touching $49.47, the highest since early November. By midday, however, they had slipped back to $48.84.
U.S. crude’s West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 rose to $48.42 before giving back most of that rise, having risen 3.3 percent on Monday.
Shares in Apple (AAPL.O) finished 3.7 percent higher on Monday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) reported taking a stake of about $1 billion in the iPhone maker. Apple shares had lost about one-fifth of their value in the past month on worries about the company’s slowing sales growth.
In the currency market, the British pound rose 0.6 percent to $1.45 GBP=D4 helped in part by a report that the “In” campaign held a 15-point lead over rival “Out” ahead of Britain’s June 23 referendum on European Union membership.
The dollar was little changed against the euro at $1.1320 EUR=, but rose 0.5 percent against the yen to 109.50 yen JPY= as investors took a ‘risk on’ stance on Tuesday.
The Australian dollar rose 1 percent to a high of $0.7366 AUD=D4, its best day in over a month, after minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s May policy meeting were less dovish in tone than many investors had expected.
Bond yields were mostly higher, with U.S. yields up a basis point across the curve US2YT=RR US10YT=RR and benchmark euro zone yields up around 2 basis points EU2YT=RR EU10YT=RR.
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Reuters
