Volkswacht Bodensee - Stocks rally, dollar slides as markets eye end to US rate hikes

Asian and European traders picked up the baton from their Wall Street counterparts after the Fed froze US interest rates Wednesday.

The Bank of England was expected to maintain its key interest rate in a decision due 1200 GMT.

On the corporate front, all eyes will be on Apple earnings later Thursday.

There is "a sense that the Fed has come to an end of its rate hike cycle", said Saxo's Redmond Wong.

The US central bank held interest rates at a 22-year high for a second straight meeting.

The Fed kept its benchmark lending rate between 5.25 percent and 5.5 percent.

However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell cautioned that "the process of getting inflation sustainably down to two percent has a long way to go".

He added that the US central bank was not at all thinking about rate cuts.

The drop in future rate-hike expectations -- some put the chances of a December lift at about only 20 percent -- saw the dollar slide against its peers.

Notably, it eased to just above 150 yen, having surged towards a three-decade high 152 at one point this week after a Bank of Japan policy tweak fell short of what some had forecast.

The prospect of a softer dollar and easier financial conditions for companies pushed up crude, which is priced in the greenback.

The commodity had been falling in recent days on hopes that the Israel-Hamas conflict would not widen across the crude-rich Middle East.

- Key figures around 1115 GMT -

London - FTSE 100: UP 1.3 percent at 7,437.00 points

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 1.6 percent at 15,160.85

Paris - CAC 40: UP 1.9 percent at 7,060.97

EURO STOXX 50: UP 1.9 percent at 4,167.10

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.1 percent at 31,949.89 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.8 percent at 17,230.59 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.5 percent at 3,009.41 (close)

New York - Dow: UP 0.7 percent at 33,274.58 (close)

Dollar/yen: DOWN at 150.30 yen from 150.89 yen on Wednesday

Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0635 from $1.0573

Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2195 from $1.2150

Euro/pound: UP at 87.19 pence from 87.00 pence

Brent North Sea crude: UP 1.4 percent at $85.79 per barrel

West Texas Intermediate: UP 1.5 percent at $81.63 per barrel

H.Weber--VB