LONDON—World shares and the dollar inched higher and gold was at a three-month low on Thursday as traders’ attention continued to swing between the battle to lower inflation and speculation about currency market intervention in China and Japan.
Europe’s regional STOXX 600 index barely budged in early trading after what had been its biggest rise in almost a month the previous day, while futures markets were pointing to a fractionally higher start on Wall Street later.
Sweden had already kicked the day off with another interest rate hike, while one of its biggest firms and one of Europe’s largest fashion retailers H&M saw its shares hit a 16-month high after forecast-beating results….