LONDON—Stock markets and the dollar moved cautiously higher on Wednesday before the latest Federal Reserve meeting minutes, while New Zealand’s dollar soared as its central bank joined those now aggressively jacking up interest rates.
Nerves about a global recession were jangled on Tuesday by weak U.S. housing market data, but European and Asian trading saw the mood gradually strengthen.
Hints of more stimulus from China and a tick up in German consumer morale lifted Europe’s STOXX 600 0.6 percent early on after MSCI’s main Asian indexes rose around 0.5 percent overnight.
Oil was creeping up again, which along with higher food prices meant more fuel for rising inflation that central banks globally are now struggling to contain….