* China trims short-term interest rate, in surprise move
* World shares index less than 1% from record high
* Wall Street starting week at its own record high
* Markets look to Fed minutes, ECB Lagarde speech
* Pound pushes up as opinion polls favour Tories
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh
*
By Marc Jones
LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - World shares were within touching
distance of a record high on Monday, after Beijing surprised
markets by trimming a key interest rate for the first time since
2015.
In the latest show of support for its economy, China's
central bank cut rates on seven-day reverse repurchase
agreements by five basis points to 2.50% The news helped Asia's main markets get the week off to a
solid start .CSI300 .N225 .HSI . Europe's STOXX 600 and FTSE
.FTSE followed suit with 0.1% to 0.3% gains, though the German
DAX and French CAC40 remained in the red. .EU
MSCI's 49-country main world share index .MIWD00000PUS
inched 0.1% higher, leaving it less than 1% off its early 2018
record high, with Wall Street gains looking likely. .N
"It is a slow start to a slow week, but risk is marginally
on," said Societe Generale strategist Kit Juckes.
He added it was now hard to avoid concluding that China was
slowly easing monetary policy, having held off in recent months,
perhaps wary of drawing fresh criticism from U.S. President
Donald Trump during trade talks.
"Maybe that's what 5 basis points (cut to repo rate) is all
about. It's not rocking the boat, but it's a shift."
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX was extending its
six-week winning streak, helped by a bidding war for Spanish
stock exchange BME. The STOXX index is only 8 points short of
its record high of 415.18 points from mid-April.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 gained 0.5% to stop just short of its
recent 13-month top and Hong Kong's Hang Seng climbed 1.35%
despite ongoing protests there. Shanghai blue chips recouped
early losses to close up 0.8% .CSI300 . .SS .T
Beijing's rate cut came after more U.S. trade deal chatter
over the weekend.
On Saturday, Chinese state media said the two sides had
"constructive talks" in a high-level phone call that included
Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer
and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "More than in previous rounds, we see momentum toward
reaching at least a limited trade deal, and certainly a
mini-deal would remove some of the negative sentiment overhang
for the real economy and markets," said Patrik Schowitz, global
multi-asset strategist at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.
"We have upgraded our outlook on equities as an asset
class," he said. "Emerging-market equities are now our most
favoured region alongside U.S. large-cap equities."
The main EM equities index .MSCIEF is currently up almost
9% for the year, three time less the 27% surge in the S&P 500
.STX and less than half the 20% jump of the broader world
index. .MIWD00000PUS
ELECTION BOOST
Sterling rose to its highest since May against the euro
GBPEUR= and to nearly $1.30 GBP=D3 versus the dollar as more
polls showed the ruling Conservative party ahead in the campaign
for Britain's Dec. 12 election. The dollar was little changed against other major currencies
and within recent trading ranges. Volatility in the market has
been the lowest in decades recently and shows no sign of
shifting.
The U.S. currency rose against the safe-haven yen to 109.02
$1.0987 last week, with traders waiting for the first major
speech by new European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde,
on Friday.
Government bond yields were higher on Monday, GVD/EUR but
along with the dollar they are likely to be sensitive to minutes
of the Federal Reserve's last policy meeting, set to be
released on Wednesday.
"The minutes are likely to reiterate that the U.S. economy
is 'solid' and that current monetary policy settings are
'appropriate', which would support the dollar," said Joseph
Capurso, a currency analyst at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
However, he noted a report on October U.S. retail sales
released on Friday suggested previously strong consumption might
be slowing. "Any further weakness in consumption could warrant a
material reassessment of the outlook by the FOMC. Under our
baseline, the FOMC would most likely start cutting interest
rates again in 2020," said Capurso.
Spot gold fell to $1,459 per ounce XAU= .
Oil prices slipped, after Brent touched a seven-week high on
Friday. O/R Brent crude LCOc1 futures dropped 44 cents to
$62.83 a barrel. U.S. crude CLc1 slipped by 25 cents to
$57.48.
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Asia stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
Asia-Pacific valuations https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dr2BQA
World markets in 2019 and in November https://tmsnrt.rs/2QuPJh2
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