By Jamie McGeever

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) -TRADING DAY

Making sense of the forces driving global markets

By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist

Stock markets around the world leaped to new highs on Thursday, propelled by optimism around the AI boom and hopes for further U.S. interest rate cuts, as investors shrugged off the U.S. government shutdown which entered its second day.

More on that below. In my column today I look at why the U.S. government shutdown is the last thing the Federal Reserve needs right now – visibility around the labor market and inflation for data-dependent policymakers was already limited, and this just reduces it even more.

If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today.

Today’s Ke

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