NEW YORK/LONDON: Global stocks edged higher on Wednesday after US services sector data supported a slow but steady recovery, and lifted the dollar against the Japanese yen.
Trading across most asset classes remained thin, however, as traders refrained from sharp moves before a Friday report on the US labor market.
World stocks as measured by MSCI inched up 0.06 percent to 1,193.64, their highest level since the darkest days of the financial crisis in September 2008. Earlier in the session, this index hit a fresh 52-week high at 1,195.26, Reuters data showed.
Earlier in the session, two of the three major US stock indexes hit fresh 52-week highs. The S&P 500 climbed as high as 1,138.17, while the Nasdaq rose as high as 2,314.07.
But by midday, Wall Street was trading flat to slightly lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.76 points, or 0.05 percent, to 10,567.26. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index inched down just 0.23 of a point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,136.29 and the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 6.44 points, or 0.28 percent, to 2,302.27.
European shares rebounded from losses. The FTSEurofirst 300 rose 0.11 percent to 1,061.57. Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.46 percent to end at 10,731.45, a 15-month closing high. The dollar rose against the yen on Wednesday, buoyed by the resignation of Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii.
But the greenback’s gains were limited by softer-than-expected data on US private-sector jobs.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan will become finance minister, with Fujii — one of the few experienced members of the novice Democratic Party-led government — resigning due to ill health. At midday in New York, the dollar rose 0.84 percent to 92.49 yen.
The euro took a brief battering on Wednesday on worries the European Union would not rescue fiscally struggling Greece. The euro rose 0.17 percent to $1.4393. The dollar slipped against a basket of trading-partner currencies, with the US Dollar Index off 0.10 percent at 77.545.
Meanwhile, snow, ice and wind wreaked havoc on energy markets Wednesday, where a barrel of oil topped $83 a barrel for the first time since the fall of 2008. Natural gas futures soared 6 percent.
After the weekly report from the Energy Information Administration surprised traders, benchmark crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange reversed direction and rose 92 cents to $82.69 a barrel in early afternoon trading. It went as high as $83.15 earlier in the day.
Dangerous temperatures that knocked fruit from vines in Florida and made driving treacherous in New England had people reaching for the thermostat.
Weather easily trumped a surprise report Wednesday from the Energy Information Administration that showed the supply of crude and gasoline in storage is growing. The amount of gas placed into storage last week was three times greater than what was expected by energy analysts polled by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil fell less than a penny to $2.1891 a gallon because there are still enormous supplies available. Gasoline rose less than a penny to $2.1304 a gallon. Natural gas futures rose 33.4 cents to $5.971. In London, Brent crude for February delivery rose 88 cents to $81.47 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.