Fed Chair Janet Yellen also said on Thursday that the central bank's further rate hikes could be gradual, given persistently low inflation despite an improving economy. The pan-European STOXX 600 index inched up 0.1 percent, adding to earlier gains on stock markets in Asia that took MSCI's world stock index to an all-time high. "Full valuations suggest that the market is yet again going into this reporting season anticipating results to outperform consensus analyst expectations." Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were down 19 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $48.23 per barrel. For Reuters Live Markets blog on European and UK stock markets see reuters://realtime/verb=Open/url=http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageId=livemarkets(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Source: dna July 14, 2017 08:37 UTC