LONDON- World stocks briefly hit a one-week high on Thursday as optimism on consumer demand boosted Wall Street, while the yen fell broadly after expectations rose Japan might announce additional monetary easing steps. Consumer stocks led gains on Wall Street after an upbeat sales forecast from discounter Target (TGT.N) and data showing U.S. home refinancing demand rose to its highest level in 15 months brightened the outlook for consumer spending. Asian stocks rose, helped by gains in Japan. However, equity gains were short-lived and European stocks turned lower as investors awaited more economic data from both sides of the Atlantic for signs on whether the economic recovery is sustainable. "(The stock market) has been moving sideways for a while, but now investors are trying to anticipate what's coming next year in terms of economic growth," said Achim Matzke, European stock indexes analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. MSCI world equity index (.MIWD00000PUS) rose to its highest in more than a week before erasing gains to stand steady on the day. The Thomson Reuters global stock index (.TRXFLDGLPU) was down slightly on the day. The FTSEurofirst 300 index (.FTEU3) fell a quarter percent, with cement maker Holcim (HOLN.VX) down 4 per cent after it reported weaker-than-expected first-half earnings. Emerging stocks (.MSCIEF) rose 0.4 per cent. US crude oil gained 0.4 percent on expectations for strong demand from Asia while German government bond futures were down 15 ticks. The yen fell half a per cent to 85.77 per dollar, after hitting a 15-year high of 84.72 yen last week. The Bank of Japan is lining up its options in case it needs to ease monetary policy next month. If the BOJ were to ease, the most likely option would be to offer more cash to the market by expanding a fixed-rate, cheap loan scheme for banks put in place in December. "We fully expect additional easing to materialize given intense political pressure as the government is fully aware that it has only limited room to provide additional stimulus to support the Japanese economy which has lost upward momentum sharply," Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ said in a note. The dollar (.DXY) rose half a percent against a basket of major currencies.
