Sawt Falasteen - Stocks rally rolls on into March

On Wall Street, both the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index and the S&P 500 both set new intraday records as Dell Technologies surged around 30 percent following an earnings report that highlighted its growing AI business.

In Europe, Frankfurt's DAX set a new record while the CAC in Paris was also near its record high, with a less-than-expected drop in eurozone inflation failing to derail sentiment.

Meanwhile in Asia, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei index almost touched 40,000 points for the first time.

"This week saw risk on sentiment take several global stock indices to record highs, the first day of March being no exception," said Axel Rudolph, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG.

David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said "market sentiment remains bullish, and there seems little appetite for profit-taking."

Stock markets have been on a march higher since late last year, first on hopes that central banks will soon be able to begin lowering their high interest rates as inflation began to fall closer to normal levels.

While hotter-than-expected inflation data from recent months has pushed expectations for the first interest rate cut to mid-year, stellar results from AI firms has propelled markets higher in recent weeks.

Inflation data continued to disappoint, with data showing Friday the euro-area annual inflation rate slowed to 2.6 percent last month from 2.8 percent in January, missing expectations of a drop to 2.5 percent.

Core inflation that excludes volatile food and energy prices stayed above three percent.

"With inflation coming in above estimates, traders will be keeping a close eye out for any change in stance from the ECB at Thursday's monetary policy announcement," noted Scope Markets analyst Joshua Mahony.

The European Central Bank is under pressure to cut rates after keeping them unchanged since October at a two-decade high while economic growths stagnate.

"While today's data looks unlikely to lessen the chance of a June rate cut, it does dampen any calls for a speedy return to easing in April."

Markets are eagerly following data for a steer on when both the ECB and US Federal Reserve might start cutting their key rates as inflation cools.

The latest US inflation data that came out Thursday also raised concern about persistent price pressures but didn't shake expectations of an interest rate cut later this year.

Asian markets mostly rose Friday, with better-than-expected Chinese data helping sentiment.

"China's factory growth rising above forecasts even though manufacturing shrank for a fifth straight month did not dent investors' mood with the country's stock indices pursuing their recovery," said IG's Rudolph.

Oil prices rose around three percent, with the main US contract WTI jumping above $80 per barrel for the first time since November, amid expectations that the OPEC+ cartel will soon extend its production and export cuts and continued tensions in the Middle East.

- Key figures around 1630 GMT -

New York - Dow: FLAT at 39,001.40 points

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.5 percent at 5,116.30

New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 16,200.75

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.7 percent at 7,682.50 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 17,735.07 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP less than 0.1 percent at 7,934.17 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.4 percent at 4,894.86 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.9 percent at 39,910.82 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.5 percent at 16,589.44 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.4 percent at 3,027.02 (close)

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0826 from $1.0805 on Thursday

Dollar/yen: UP at 150.25 yen from 149.98 yen

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2638 from $1.2625

Euro/pound: UP at 85.66 pence from 85.58 pence

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 2.8 percent at $84.17 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 3.2 percent at $80.75 per barrel

burs-rl/cw

O.Mousa--SF-PST