By Danilo Masoni and Tom Westbrook
MILAN, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Stocks rose slightly on Thursday on cautious optimism that US data will confirm that inflation is weakening, while the yen rose on expectations that the Bank of Japan will revise the spillover effects. of its ultra-lax policy.
* The MSCI index of world stocks was up 0.4% to a four-week high as of 1111 GMT, ahead of the release of data expected to show US headline inflation dipped 6.5% in December. from 7.1% in the previous month, with core inflation at 5.7% per year, down from 6% in the previous month. MoM inflation would be at zero.
* The benchmark European STOXX 600 index gained 0.6% to hit its highest level since April 2022.
* The MSCI Asia-Pacific excluding Japan index added 0.3% after hitting a seven-month high, while Japan’s Nikkei closed flat.
* S&P 500 futures were broadly flat after Wall Street’s indices rose on Wednesday.
* Brent crude futures were up 1.2% at 83.62 a barrel.
* Yields on the 10-year US Treasury note were down 3.2 basis points (bps) to 3.524%. Germany’s 10-year yield, the euro zone benchmark, fell 5 basis points to 2.135%. Yields move inversely to bond prices.
* The yen rose as much as 1.2%, accelerating gains after breaking key levels, and then traded at 130.99 units per dollar. Ten-year Japanese government bond futures fell to their lowest level since May 2014.
* The dollar index was down 0.1% at 103.06, near the seven-month low of 102.93 hit this week. The yuan was trading at a five-month high at 6.7499 per dollar.
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni in Milan and Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)
