LONDON, March 8 Reuters Stock benchmarks hit new lifetime highs on Friday, buoyed by the prospect of interest rate cuts in the United States and Europe in coming months, with U.S. jobs numbers the next data milestone ahead of Wall Street39;s open.

As stocks scaled fresh peaks, bond yields and the dollar fell, while gold hit new highs for the fourth straight session.

While central banks on both sides of the Atlantic manage expectations of exactly when they will start lowering borrowing costs, investors pushed up the yen after reports that Japan39;s central bank may begin hauling rates from negative territory as soon as this month.

The dollar headed for its sharpest weekly drop of the year on the growing likelihood of lower borrowing costs.

SP 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were slightly weaker.

Crude oil prices seesawed amid the market39;s scrutiny of rate cut timings.

The MSCI AllCountry stock index was up 0.2, hitting a new lifetime high of 774.95 points.

A year ago, investors were staring down the barrel of a U.S. banking crisis and worries about credit, but since then tech stocks have pushed stock indexes to record highs on the back of an AI boom, said Patrick Spencer, Baird vice chair of equities.

You39;ve got some very strong macro conditions, disinflation, the approaching monetary pivot, resilient earnings growth, and AI enthusiasm, Spencer said.

Countering that you have unappealing technical developments where you39;ve got some euphoric sentiment and…