Stocks higher on hopes for more Fed largesse Monday 14:30 BST. Hopes that the Federal Reserve remains prepared to provide further liquidity to support the US economy is giving an extra boost to risk assets as Wall Street kicks into gear. Lingering concerns about global growth prospects are being counteracted by comments on the American jobs market from Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, switching an initially mixed session into one that is more broadly positive. "[Mr] Bernanke spent an inordinate amount of time and effort to inform us that he has failed on his mandate to get unemployment down and it seems he is highlighting that if he doesn't see an improvement soon he will be forced to add to QE," says Maurice Pomery of Strategic Alpha in London. Equities are higher on the thought of such a gift and gold and commodities all higher [too]. Wall Street's S&P 500 is up 0.7 per cent at the opening bell and the dollar index, which had been higher for much of the day, is now down 0.3 per cent as investors price in the chances of yet more Fed largesse. Europe's FTSE Eurofirst 300 has been mildly volatile but is currently up 0.8 per cent as it tracks the bounce for New York. An unexpected improvement in German business sentiment during March, provided little initial propulsion, though perhaps its impact is proving a slow burner. The weaker dollar leaves gold up 0.9 per cent at $1,678 an ounce, while the soft buck and the improving mood in stocks has helped industrial commodities recover from a poor start, with copper adding 1.3 per cent to $3.86 a pound and Brent crude advancing 56 cents to $125.69 a barrel. "Core" sovereign bonds are being pulled in two directions; sellers moved in to the havens as risk assets improved, but the prospects for more Fed buying of Treasuries then lent support to prices. The upshot is that yields on 10-year US paper are well off highs, up just 1 basis point to 2.24 per cent, while equivalent duration Bunds remain out of sorts, up 5bp to 1.91 per cent. The FTSE All-World equity index is up 0.7 per cent - held back a bit by a soft Asian session - and is sitting only about 1 per cent from its near eight-month high hit just a few sessions ago. The global benchmark has eased back from that peak as investors have tempered some of their recent optimism about the economic recovery in the US, Europe and China. "Last week, most of the news pointed to a moderation in the pace of gains in economic activity that has been enjoyed since the start of the year," said Barclays Capital in a note on Monday. The pullback in global confidence indicators, most notably in Europe and China, weighed on high-beta assets and currencies . . . Softer-than-expected new [US] home sales suggest that activity in that sector is lackadaisical at best. Another area that is causing traders a bit of concern is the re-emergence, after a seemingly all too brief hiatus, of eurozone fiscal stresses. The main focus of this has been the march higher in recent weeks of Spanish bond yields, an indicator perhaps that investors are fretting again about the chances of Madrid getting to grips with its budget deficit. The 10-year Spanish yield is a few basis points lighter at 5.32 per cent - even after Spain's governing party failed to secure electoral control of the Andalusia region - but it remains only a dozen or so basis points below a two-month high. This may be why the euro initially was getting little lift from reports that Germany has become more amenable to increasing the eurozone's financial "firewall," to prevent the crisis in the region's periphery spreading to other member states. But the single currency has rallied along with growth-linked units such as the Australian dollar following the Bernanke comments, gaining 0.3 per cent to $1.3313. Earlier the FTSE Asia-Pacific index lost 0.5 per cent as initial gains were pared into the close with resource stocks, in particular, struggling for traction on demand worries. The commodity-rich Sydney market eased back as miners were mixed, the S&P/ASX 200 losing 0.2 per cent. A weaker yen boosted some Japanese exporters, but Tokyo's Nikkei 225 could only manage a 0.1 per cent advance as the regional torpor weighed. Shares of most exporters in Seoul were damped by the uncertain global economic outlook, leaving the Kospi index off 0.4 per cent. Chinese banks were a drag on the Hong Kong market on concerns about local government loans. The Hang Seng finished unchanged while on the mainland the Shanghai Composite lost initial gains to add just 0.1 per cent.