(Adds U.S. markets opening, byline; changes dateline; previous
LONDON)
By Matt Scuffham and Tom Arnold
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Global stocks rose on Tuesday,
helped by strong earnings updates in the United States, but U.S.
Treasury yields hovered close to three-week lows on concerns
about potential roadblocks to President Joe Biden's planned
$1.9 trillion stimulus.
Wall Street's main indexes opened higher. Strong earnings
updates from a slew of companies, including General Electric and
Johnson & Johnson, pushed the S&P 500 to a record high.
By 10:23 a.m. ET (1523 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial
Average .DJI rose 30.53 points, or 0.1%, to 30,990.53, the S&P
500 .SPX lost 1.52 points, or 0.04%, to 3,853.84 and the
Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 1.56 points, or 0.01%, to
13,634.43.
European stocks also gained despite political upheaval in
Italy.
Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index .FTEU3 added 0.79%,
at 1,575.88. The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX was up 0.8%
after Swiss wealth manager UBS UBSG.S posted a surge in
quarterly net profit. The MSCI world equity index .MIWD00000PUS , which tracks
shares in 49 nations, rose 0.29 point, or 0.04%, to 668.37.
After a "buy everything" rally over several months supported
by money-printing pandemic stimulus packages, near-zero interest
rates and the start of COVID-19 vaccination programs, some
investors are worried markets may be near "bubble" territory.
They point to rocketing prices of assets such as bitcoin or,
on Monday, the soaring stock of short-squeezed videogame
retailer Gamestop GME.N . "There is room for some consolidation," said Francois
Savary, chief investment officer at Swiss wealth manager Prime
Partners.
Mounting coronavirus cases and caution as the Federal
Reserve kicked off its two-day policy meeting also tempered
sentiment.
"We expect the January FOMC to repeat and reinforce the
Fed's existing dovishness, which is still significant given the
recent taper discussions and other central banks' considerations
to adapt policy," CitiFX strategist Ebrahim Rahbari said in a
note.
U.S. lawmakers agreed that getting COVID-19 vaccines to
Americans should be a priority even as they locked horns over
the size of a pandemic relief package. Democratic Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer nevertheless warned the relief package may
be four to six weeks away. Disagreements have meant months of indecision in the United
States, where new COVID-19 cases have been above 175,000 a day
and millions of people are out of work.
The dollar index .DXY , which tracks the greenback versus a
basket of six currencies, fell 0.192 point or 0.21%, to 90.199.
The euro EUR= was last up 0.22%, at $1.2164.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield US10YT=RR was
last trading at 1.034%, after earlier slipping to three-week
lows. US/
Italian government bond yields were lower as Prime Minister
Giuseppe Conte handed in his resignation to the head of state,
hoping he would be given an opportunity to put together a new
coalition and rebuild his parliamentary majority. Germany's 10-year bond yield fell a basis point to a
two-week low of -0.561% DE10YT=RR before recovering some
ground, while Italian 10-year yields IT10YT=RR were at 0.620%,
having earlier touched the day's high of 0.655%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
.MIAPJ0000PUS fell 11.47 points or 1.58% in Asia overnight.
South Korea .KS11 and Hong Kong HSI topped losers, each
falling more than 2%. The sell-off also caused Japanese stocks
.N225 to slip 1% and Chinese blue-chips .CSI300 to tumble
2%, their biggest one-day loss since Sept. 9.
All had touched milestone highs earlier this month.
Spot gold prices XAU= fell $0.1315 or 0.01%, to $1,854.86
an ounce.
After rising nearly 1% on Monday, Brent crude LCOc1 crude
was last up $0.18, or 0.32%, at $56.06 a barrel. U.S. crude
CLc1 was last up $0.05, or 0.09%, at $52.82 per barrel.
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