(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to U.S. close)
* Global shares climb to records on trade, growth optimism
* European shares set for best year since financial crisis
* China's industrial profits grow at fastest in 8 months
* Dollar slips as risk appetite grows on economic outlook
By Herbert Lash
NEW YORK, Dec 27 (Reuters) - World equity markets scaled
records on Friday with global growth prospects raised by upbeat
Chinese economic data and optimism a U.S.-Sino trade deal is
imminent, but the year-end rally ebbed on Wall Street and the
dollar eased as risk appetite grew.
Wall Street set all-time highs early and European shares
rose to a third day of record peaks this week as various U.S.
and European indexes remained set to post their best year since
the global financial crisis a decade ago.
Profits at Chinese industrial firms grew at the fastest pace
in eight months in November, rising 5.4% from a year earlier to
593.9 billion yuan ($84.93 billion). The gains snapped three
months of decline, but broad weakness in domestic demand remains
a risk for Chinese corporate earnings in 2020. The U.S.-China trade war has rattled international commerce.
Trade between the world's two largest economies fell 15.2% in
the 12 months through November from the same period in 2018,
according to Panjiva, a S&P Global Market Intelligence unit.
The dollar slipped across the board as growing risk appetite
sapped the safe-haven appeal of the greenback.
MSCI's gauge of stock performance in 49 countries
.MIWD00000PUS gained 0.26% while the pan-European STOXX 600
index .STOXX rose 0.21%, both setting all-time highs.
In Europe, financial services .SXFP , industrial .SXNP ,
chemicals .SX4P and health care .SXDP notched intraday
record highs. The STOXX 600 index is up 24% this year.
Equity markets are poised to rise further in 2020, even as
high valuations pose a concern, said Rahul Shah, chief executive
of Ideal Asset Management in New York.
"Considering the dynamics of the market right now we think
that equity investors should be positioning for further bullish
momentum in 2020," Shah said.
"Valuations have been ticking up a little bit, but there
have been many times in market history where valuations stay
above average for a while," he said.
Wall Street's three main indexes lost steam at the close,
with the Nasdaq edging lower and the S&P 500 just a fraction
higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 23.87 points,
or 0.08%, to 28,645.26. The S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.11 points,
or 0.00%, to 3,240.02 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped
15.77 points, or 0.17%, to 9,006.62.
The S&P 500 closed four-tenths of a percentage point shy of
surpassing a 29.6% gain in 2013, which would give the U.S.
benchmark its best year since 1997.
Overnight in Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS jumped 0.8% to 555.39, a
level not seen since mid-2018. It is up 15.5% so far this year.
Emerging market stocks rose 0.58%.
Germany's benchmark 10-year Bund yield held steady below
recent six-month highs of about -0.21% reached last week, while
U.S. Treasury yields fell as government debt found support
following a sell-off that sent yields to one-month highs.
Yields have risen amid increased risk appetite driven by
optimism that a Phase 1 U.S.-Sino trade pact will spur global
growth and as major central banks inject liquidity into the
market.
Ten-year bond yields in Germany DE10YT=RR , France
FR10YT=RR and the Netherlands NL10YT=RR were broadly steady
having dipped a basis point in early trade.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR rose 9/32 in price to
push yields down to 1.8752%.
The euro rose to a 10-day high. The dollar index .DXY fell
0.52%, with the euro EUR= up 0.7% to $1.1174. The Japanese yen
JPY= strengthened 0.19% versus the greenback at 109.45 per
dollar.
Oil prices edged down from three-month highs as Russian
Energy Minister Alexander Novak made comments that fed doubts
about crude output cuts next year from the Organization of the
Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers including
Russia, a group known as OPEC+. Brent crude LCOc1 settled up 24 cents to $68.16 a barrel,
while West Texas Intermediate CLc1 rose 4 cents to settle at
$61.72 a barrel.
U.S. gold futures GCcv1 climbed to a seven-week high of
$1,519.90 an ounce, and settled up 0.2% higher at $1,518.10.