How the new composition of voters on the FOMC affects policy this year remains to be seen.
For now, European equities are pushing higher with the STOXX 600 trading at a 23-month high and Germany’s DAX rising over 1%.
The euro zone’s banking stocks are leading the rally, jumping as much as 2% and on track for their biggest daily rise since October.
Wall Street futures are also pointing to a higher open. With the S&P 500 just 1% from its all-time high, it seems only a matter of time before new peaks are reached for the U.S. benchmark.
The picture in Asia was less rosy with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pac shares outside Japan falling 0.6%, led lower by weakness in China and Hong Kong as latest activity data signaled uneven economic recovery.
A private sector survey showed China’s factory activity expanded at a quicker pace last month, but that contrasted with official data, released on Sunday, that showed manufacturing activity shrank for a third straight month in December.
Elsewhere, the dollar is hovering above a five-month low reached at the end of last year, while bond yields in the U.S. and Europe are on the up but remain within striking distance of multi-month lows reached at the end of 2023.
Bitcoin has also begun the new year in a similar fashion to how it ended the last, storming above $45,000 for the first time since April 2022.
