Robinhood shares gain on Q2 beat, as user and crypto growth accelerate
* MSCI ACWI hits record high; Apple leads tech shares
* Relief over U.S.-Iran tensions support sentiment
* Asian stock markets: https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
By Hideyuki Sano
TOKYO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The world's shares hit a record
high on Friday as a relief over de-escalation of U.S.-Iranian
tensions quickly prompted investors to bet on faster global
growth, especially in the technology sector.
MSCI's broadest gauge of the world's stocks in 49 countries
.MIWD00000PUS rose a tad to hit an all-time high and its index
on Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS rose 0.18%.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 rose 0.43% while Australian stocks
.AXJO rallied 0.67% to a record high.
That followed record-setting in the pan-regional STOXX 600
index in Europe .STOXX and the three major stock indexes on
Wall Street.
The S&P 500 .SPX gained 0.67%, with its technology sector
rising more than 1%. Apple AAPL.O gained 2.1%, helped by news
that the sales of its iPhones in China in December jumped more
than 18% year on year. .N
Investors welcomed the report as a prelude to the upcoming
visit by China's Vice Premier Liu He, head of the country's
negotiation team in Sino-U.S. trade talks, to Washington next
week to sign a trade deal with the United States.
Liu will visit Washington on Jan. 13-15 and U.S. President
Donald Trump has said the so-called phase one deal will be
signed on Jan. 15. "We will have a symbolic event of Sino-U.S. dialogue. Given
the current strength of the market, it is hard not to expect
this rally to continue for the time being," said Norihiro
Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan
Stanley Securities in Tokyo.
Global shares quickly erased losses that followed missile
attacks from Iran targeting U.S. forces in Iraq, as the two
countries moved to defuse the tension.
Waning worries about all-out war in the Middle East pushed
down gold, safe-harbour currencies and oil.
Gold XAU= eased off to $1,552.80 per ounce from a
seven-year high of $1,610.90 hit right after Iran's missile
attack on Wednesday.
Against the yen, the U.S. dollar traded at 109.52 yen
JPY= , having hit a two-week high of 109.58 in U.S. trade on
Thursday.
The euro stood little changed at $1.1105 EUR= , having
fallen to $1.10915 in the U.S. trade, its lowest in about two
weeks.
Oil prices were sharply lower from their highs hit in the
wake of Iran's missile attack.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 fell to as
low as $58.66 per barrel on Thursday and last stood at $59.51,
down slightly on the day, compared to Wednesday's peak of
$65.65.
China's Vice Premier Liu to sign U.S. trade deal in Washington
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