Asian stock indexes rose on Thursday after the Federal Reserve noted the long-awaited end to its monetary stimulus next year, but provided otherwise upbeat economic forecasts that lifted investor sentiment.
Treasury yields remained high, while gold rose along with crude oil. The US dollar recovered from the "rollercoaster ride" the day before, when it jumped sharply immediately after the Fed announcement, but subsequently fell by half.
Japan's Nikkei climbed 1.91% to a three-week intraday high, while Taiwan's index added 0.74%.
However, according to https://exness1.org/review/, mainland Chinese stocks were mixed, with energy stocks rising and consumer stocks struggling. The blue-chip index fluctuated between small gains and losses and was last up 0.11%.
MSCI Asia-Pacific's broadest index of equities added 0.43%.
Meanwhile, European futures indicated a jump at the open with EURO STOXX 50 futures up 1.67% and FTSE futures up 1.05%.
The Fed has developed a scenario in which a COVID-19 pandemic, despite the Omicron option, gives way to a set of favourable economic conditions in which inflation falls mostly by itself, interest rates rise slowly and unemployment remains low in the near term.
"The economy no longer needs increasing policy support," Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a press conference after the conclusion of the two-day policy meeting.
"Powell was definitely optimistic, and perhaps the market was inspired by his views - they seem to have created a serious bid for risk assets," Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone in Melbourne, wrote in a note.
"The Fed is a market price maker and affects everything."
US electronic mini-commodity futures pointed the S&P 500 index up 0.28% after the benchmark index rose 1.63% overnight to a record high.
Money markets see a good chance of a first Fed rate hike by May and then by September and December, although three quarter-point rate hikes will not be fully accounted for until February 2023.
US ten-year treasury bond yields fell slightly in Tokyo trading to 1.4565% after a two-day increase of 4.4 basis points.
The US dollar index, which measures the currency against six major peers, rose 0.05% to 96.429, little changed after falling 0.21% overnight.
Gold rose 0.30 per cent to $1,782.45.
US crude rose $0.78 to $71.65 and Brent crude rose $0.681 to $74.56.
Attention now turns to policy announcements later Thursday by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, which are also trying to balance the need to support economies threatened by the coronavirus with the need to withdraw easy money to cool inflation.
The ECB is expected to cut stimulus by another notch, but is promising plentiful support next year, sticking to its long-held view that price pressures will ease on their own.
Nevertheless, investors have sharply increased their bets that the Bank of England is going to raise rates after Wednesday's published report showed that UK consumer price inflation rose to a more than 10-year high in November, beating all economists' forecasts.
"There is clearly more pressure on the Bank of England to come to terms with this and begin to normalise policy after it ramped it up at its last meeting ... although the consensus is that the Bank of England will hold its fire and wait until the implications of the Omicron option are clear ," Tapas Strickland, director of economics at the National Australia Bank, wrote in a note to clients.
Sterling was down 0.14% to $1.3242 after rising 0.28% overnight.
The euro fell 0.08% to $1.12855 after jumping 0.34% on Wednesday.
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Eleena Timmons