By Tamawa Desai
LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - World stocks hit a two-year high on Wednesday while emerging equities rose to their highest level since mid-2008 as investors anticipated more U.S. monetary easing would support the global economy.
The U.S. Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision later on Wednesday. Markets have priced for the Fed to initially commit to buying at least $500 billion in U.S. Treasuries over five months although much uncertainty surrounds the scope and pace of bond purchases.
MSCI world equity index <.MIWD00000PUS> rose as high as 320.42, bringing gains this year to nearly seven percent.
The MSCI emerging equities index <.MSCIEF> hit its highest since June 2008, as the prospect of further U.S. quantitative easing drives investors towards higher-yielding assets.
U.S. stock futures rose
"If they deliver a policy, which at the very least is in line with the consensus and potentially offers some hope of a greater eventual number being reached, then you have got your short term catalyst for this market to go up," said Ian Richards, European equity strategist at RBS.
"The more, as a policy maker, you can do to reduce the cost of capital, the more you increase the likelihood that the corporate sector will start to invest. I would be optimistic that it's an incremental positive in terms of real economic prospects."
Market reaction to Republicans' victory in the U.S. midterm elections was relatively muted as investors have largely priced in the outcome and shifted focus to the Fed meeting.
U.S. Treasuries also extended gains in European trading as
market participants anticipated the Fed resuming asset
purchases. The T-note future
The dollar remained under pressure, with the dollar index down 0.1 percent at 76.623 <.DXY>.
"There is uncertainty over the details of the Fed announcement but ultimately QE leads to lower yields and should mean the dollar goes down in the long-term," said Adrian Schmidt, currency strategist at Lloyds Banking Group.
The Fed is expected to announce its decision at around 1815 GMT. The U.S. central bank cut overnight interest rates to near zero in December 2008 and has already bought about $1.7 trillion in U.S. government debt and mortgage-linked bonds.
With the prospect of a long period of ultra-low returns in the United States, investors have flocked to emerging markets, pushing those currencies higher.
The Bank of Japan, which meets on Thursday and Friday, is also poised to launch a new round of bond buying. [ID:nTOE6A0098] The European Central Bank and Bank of England also meet this week, but are not expected to make any changes to policy for the time being.
U.S. crude oil prices climbed to a six-month high above $84
for a second straight session