NEW YORK: Stocks in world indexes continued their flying start to the year on Tuesday as bank stocks gained, while US oil touched its highest since late 2014.
A tweak to the Bank of Japan's bond-buying program shunted the yen higher, while the dollar climbed against a basket of major currencies, recovering further from last week's decline to its lowest in more than three months.
Wall Street's main indexes hit record highs at the open, extending a winning streak since the start of 2018. MSCI's all-country world stocks index also posted another record high.
US stock investors remain upbeat about fourth-quarter earnings season, which begins on Friday with results from JPMorgan Chase, with the focus expected to be on any comments related to the just-approved US tax overhaul that includes hefty corporate tax cuts.
Citi analysts say global earnings revisions have now been upgraded for 14 weeks in a row, the best run of weekly upgrades since their data series started in 2000.
"Across the board, we're positive about fourth quarter and the next few quarters. But it could be a little bit noisy after we got the tax reform law passed and companies make some adjustments close to year-end," said Tim Dreiling, regional investment director for The Private Client Reserve of US Bank.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 115.62 points, or 0.46 percent, to 25,398.62, the S&P 500 gained 8.11 points, or 0.30 percent, to 2,755.82 and the Nasdaq Composite added 11.77 points, or 0.16 percent, to 7,169.15.
The S&P 500 has been up every day so far in the new year, providing more optimism on the outlook for the rest of the year.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.44 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.18 percent.
Oil prices rose, touching their highest since December 2014, supported by OPEC-led production cuts and expectations that US crude inventories have dropped for an eighth week.
US crude rose 1.51 percent to $62.66 per barrel and Brent was last at $68.53, up 1.11 percent on the day.
The dollar rose against most other major currencies including the euro, which having approached three-year highs last week, slipped.
The dollar fell against the yen after the Bank of Japan trimmed its purchases of long-dated government bonds in market operations, stoking speculation the central bank could start to wind down its huge stimulus policy this year.
The dollar index rose 0.26 percent, with the euro down 0.37 percent to $1.1921.
The Japanese yen strengthened 0.39 percent versus the greenback at 112.65 per dollar, while Sterling was last trading at $1.3526, down 0.29 percent on the day.
Yields on benchmark US 10-year government notes hit a 10-month high after the Bank of Japan move.
Ten-year notes last fell 16/32 in price to yield 2.5402 percent, from 2.482 percent late on Monday.
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