Investors are awaiting central-bank decisions by the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank, due later in the day. But a weaker U.S. dollar has lifted the yen and euro, curtailing the central banks’ ability to sound excessively hawkish, he said. The gains follow broad gains in U.S. stocks that sent major indexes to a trio of records on Wednesday. In Japan, oil giants Inpex Corp. and Japan Petroleum rose nearly 1% each, outpacing the Nikkei Stock Average’s 0.2% rise ahead of the BOJ decision. Overnight in the U.S., the WSJ Dollar Index, a broad measure of the currency, ended up 0.1% at 87.00, the second-lowest closing value this year.

Source: Wall Street Journal July 20, 2017 02:03 UTC