Markets rise as investors focus on positive factors

Markets rose on Thursday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent to a record high, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.3 percent and the Nikkei 225 surged 2.3 percent.

Jack Janasiewicz, portfolio manager at Natixis Advisors, said that factors helping to boost markets include the US-China “phase-one deal that sounds like it’s going to be signed next week, global growth numbers that have been OK and highly accommodative central banks around the world”.

Oliver Renick said that economic data “are beating expectations by the biggest gap since early 2018 and on the longest win-streak since mid-2017” and that stocks ”remain resilient around risk-off events”.

Meanwhile, Nigam Arora said that popular technology stocks in particular are outperforming broader indices, and this outperformance is supported by positive money flows.