GLOBAL MARKETS-World stocks hit record high, powered by Wall Street

* Dovish Powell, weak jobs data quell inflation jitters
* S&P 500 jumps to record high as U.S. yields retreat
* Dollar index eyes worst week of year on lower bond yields
* China shares slide as price data spur tightening worries

By Carolyn Cohn
LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) - Global stocks hit record highs
on Friday, as tech shares on Wall Street cheered receding U.S.
inflation fears, with the lack of inflation pressure keeping
bond yields near two-week lows.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell reiterated late on
Thursday that inflation was not a worry, following data showing
an unexpected rise in the number of Americans filing new claims
for unemployment benefits.
MSCI's broadest gauge of world stocks .MIWD00000PUS set a
record high in Asian trading, though it was down 0.1% at 0755
GMT. The index has gained more than 1.5% this week.
"As long as monetary stimulus is easy, as long as fiscal
policy is easy, any hiccups in stocks are probably only going to
find buyers," said Giles Coghlan, chief currency analyst at
HYCM.
Emini futures ESc1 were steady after the S&P 500 .SPX
rose 0.42% to a record high, and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC
added 1.03%.
Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE hit its highest in more than a
year, bringing gains for the week to nearly 3%, helped by the
country's speedy vaccine rollout. .L
German stocks .GDAXI dipped 0.22%.
Powell signalled at an IMF event that the central bank was
nowhere near reducing support for the U.S. economy, saying that
while economic reopening could result in higher prices
temporarily, it will not constitute inflation. Deutsche Bank analysts said the comments "offered fresh
reassurance to investors who'd begun to price in earlier rate
increases on the back of some very strong economic data in
recent weeks".
Traders piled into megacap tech stocks such as Apple Inc
AAPL.O , Microsoft Corp MSFT.O and Amazon.com Inc AMZN.O ,
which were the main drivers of the S&P 500.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields US10YT=RR held close to
Thursday's two-week trough near 1.6%.
Yields had surged to the highest since Jan 2020 at 1.776% at
the end of March as a string of strong U.S. economic data stoked
fears of a spike in inflation that could force the Federal
Reserve to raise interest rates sooner than policymakers had so
far signalled.
German 10-year bond yields DE10YT=RR rose 2 basis points,
moving away from the previous session's 10-day lows.
The U.S. dollar index =USD gained 0.2% but was set for its
worst week of the year, weighed down by lower Treasury yields.
The euro EUR= dipped 0.2% after hitting two-week highs in the
previous session.
The CBOE volatility index hit its lowest since Feb 2020 at
16.55.
In Asia, Japan's Topix .TOPX gained 0.6% and Australian
stocks .AXJO hovered near a 13-month high, while South Korea's
Kospi .KS11 touched the highest intraday level since
mid-February.
Chinese shares .CSI300 , however, slid 1.5%, as robust
domestic inflation data raised worries over policy tightening.
Factory gate prices rose at their fastest annual pace since
July 2018 in March. Oil prices edged down as investors weighed rising supplies
from major producers and the impact on fuel demand from the
COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. crude CLc1 fell 0.35% to $59.38 a barrel, while Brent
LCOc1 lost 0.5% to $62.87 a barrel.
Spot gold XAU= fell 0.5% to $1,747 an ounce after jumping
to a more than one-month peak of $1,758 on Thursday.

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Global assets http://tmsnrt.rs/2jvdmXl
Global currencies vs. dollar http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
Emerging markets http://tmsnrt.rs/2ihRugV
MSCI All Country World Index Market Cap http://tmsnrt.rs/2EmTD6j
Dollar set for worst week of the year https://tmsnrt.rs/3mvEAdU
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