Global shares rally on rate cut hopes, yen weakens | U.S. & World [Video]

By Herbert Lash and Nell Mackenzie

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -A gauge of global stock markets rallied on Monday on optimism that major central banks will cut interest rates this year, while the yen weakened against the dollar after a surge last week from Japan’s suspected currency intervention.

Stocks on both sides of the Atlantic advanced, and in Asia too, as a softer-than-expected U.S. labor market report on Friday led traders to revive bets that the Federal Reserve would ease monetary policy as early as September.

The dollar index, a measure of the U.S. currency against six major trading peers, was lower for a fourth straight session after Friday’s data showed the lowest jobs gain since October calmed any angst that the Fed might even hike again.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell “told the market that a hike was unlikely. Those were his words, ‘unlikely,’ and therefore they took that to mean that he wants to cut,” said …