Buoyant Stock Market Dithers As U.S. Inflation Bites

Boosted by a $1 trillion US infrastructure bill, global stock markets held the line close to their all-time highs on Tuesday but investors were reluctant to commit further to the rally before getting a clearer picture of the surge in US inflation, Julien Ponthus, and Julie Zhu reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: A clearer picture of the surge in US inflation prevented investors from going all-out.

The pan-European STOXX opened flat but just a whisker from the record high hit last week while MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.26%. US stock futures were broadly unchanged after Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq extended their run of all-time closing highs to eight straight sessions.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes ticked down to 1.4793% while the eurozone benchmark, the German 10-year bund, edged down slightly to -0.254%.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six currencies, was down 0.06% at 94.00 while Japan's yen hit a one-month high against the greenback.

Elsewhere in cryptocurrencies, bitcoin hit a new record and held close to it at about $68,000.

Oil prices were slightly up as the passage of the US infrastructure bill and China's export growth supported the outlook for energy demand. Saudi Arabia's state-owned producer Aramco also raised the official selling price for its crude.

US crude ticked up 0.59% to $82.4 a barrel. Brent crude rose 0.46% to $83.31 per barrel. Spot gold was slightly down at $1,823.800 per ounce.

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