World stocks firm as traders look to central banks

European and Asian shares got the week off to a solid start today, with Frankfurt breaking through the psychological level of 10,000 points, as investors eyed possible central bank action.
Wall Street took a pause after a big rally, with trading steady after slipping on opening, and ahead of US Federal Reserve talks later in the week which will be closely watched for clues on any further rate hikes.
"US stocks are trending lower as decreasing oil prices weigh on energy stocks and investors pause ahead of the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy meeting," analysts Edward Jones said in an investor's note.

After the Bank of Japan started its two-day meeting today, the Bank of England makes up the week's central bank trio, also meeting later this week to decide over the direction for interest rates and stimulus.
Mark Vickery, of Zacks, said the Federal Reserve was the "biggest thing on the docket for the markets this week", even if the expectation was for no further change for the time being.
"No one really expects a new move this time around, considering the tightening global economy adding pressures that would be further amplified by another turn of the screw in the US," he wrote in a note to investors.

Markets are also keen to see if Japanese policymakers unleash fresh stimulus after launching a widely-panned negative interest rate policy in January.

The Bank of England, meanwhile, is expected to leave its main lending rate at 0.50 per cent at its Thursday meeting.
A day earlier the British government also presents its annual budget.
The monetary policy meetings come after the European Central Bank (ECB) last week cut rates and boosted its bond-buying in a bid to kickstart the tepid eurozone economy, in turn helping the German blue-chip DAX index to rally in recent days.
Today, the DAX went above 10,000 for the first time since January 13, hitting an intra-day high of 10,039.61 points.

It closed 1.62 per cent higher.
European indices won a boost from a strong showing across Asia, after the new head of China's new market regulator hinted at more action to support volatile mainland bourses.
Hong Kong closed up 1.2 per cent and Shanghai tacked on 1.8 per cent, despite more evidence of a slowdown in China's economy -- the world's second-largest and a key driver of global growth.
Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 index finished 1.7-percent higher.