World stocks rallied on Friday, putting them on course for their biggest weekly rise in four years after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s last policy meeting showed the U.S. central bank is in no rush to raise interest rates.
Investors’ relief that the Fed probably won’t move until some time next year saw them take on more risk across the board, with commodities in particular recovering some of their recent heavy losses to chalk up their biggest gains in years.
Brent crude oil was on track for its biggest weekly rise since March 2009, while zinc soared 9 percent – its biggest daily gain for seven years – after troubled mining giant Glencore said it would cut production.
Glencore shares themselves surged 12 percent, meaning they were up 41 percent on the week – their biggest weekly rise since being floated in mid-2011 – and doubling from the record low reached only two weeks ago.
At midday in Europe, the MSCI world equity index was up 0.8 percent. That was the eighth rise in a row, and put the index up 4.5 percent on the week, its best performance since late 2011.
The FTSEuroFirst index of the leading 300 European shares was up 0.8 percent on the day and up 5 percent on the week. Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were both up 1 percent.
“The Fed is at an important junction. It’s not in a position to act before elaborating a more sophisticated road plan, so it is keeping the punchbowl on the table,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya market analyst at London Capital Group.
