(.)
By Nell Mackenzie and Tom Westbrook
LONDON/SINGAPORE, March 1 (Reuters) – Global stocks rallied on Wednesday after Chinese manufacturing activity grew at its fastest pace in more than a decade amid higher-than-expected inflation figures in the euro area have affected public debt.
* Loss of inflation data of the German regions, a day after that the cifras of February mostraron that the pressures sober the precios increased more than lo esperado in Francia y España, avivaron el temor a que el Banco Central Europeo tenga que to suffer más las fees.
* The yield on German 2-year government bonds, very sensitive to changes in interest rate expectations, touched its highest level since October 2008, at around 3.20%, then gained 8 basis points ( pb) during the day. Bond yields are inverse to prices.
* Yields on two-year US Treasuries, a guide to short-term rate expectations in the country, were trading near four-month highs at 4.85% but are below a four-month high in November around 4.88%.
* Meanwhile, stock markets looked beyond Europe, supported by data from China’s manufacturing sector, which grew at its fastest pace in more than a decade in February – an outlier in Asia , where manufacturing growth slowed and stagnated elsewhere.
* The official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for China’s manufacturing sector came in at 52.6 last month, down from 50.1 in January, well above analysts’ forecast of 50.5, giving investors hope that China’s recovery can offset the global slowdown.
* The MSCI Asia-Pacific ex-Japan index rose 2.2%, leaving behind a two-month low.
* The MSCI Global Equity Index gained 0.4%. The European STOXX 600 was up 0.1% at 0955 GMT, starting the month on flat ground after a strong start to the year.
* US stocks are set to fall a week, with S&P futures up 0.2%.
* In currency markets, the dollar’s gains in February appeared to have lost momentum and currencies in Europe and Asia-Pacific rose on stronger Chinese data.
* The pound and the euro appreciated respectively by 0.4% and 0.7% against the dollar.
* Brent crude futures fell 0.5% to $83.06 a barrel.
(Reporting by Nell Mackenzie and Tom Westbrook; Editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)