Yesterday, the FOMC Meeting Minutes were released following the Feds two day meeting. Much speculation was seen before as their comments were expected to be more dovish. As expected the Fed ended their quantitative easing problem but they also made hawkish remarks regarding the labour market which came as a surprise. They showed confidence in the outlook and noted that recent events in Europe are unlikely to affect their goals. There was no direct mention of a potential earlier hike in interest rates but it was stated that any decision made would be dependent on economic data and market performance. Following the release U.S. stocks declined. The S&P 500 lost 0.14% and the Dow Jones lost 0.18%.
Asian markets were mixed. The Nikkei climbed 0.647% as the Dollar strengthened against the Yen after the FOMC statement. The Dollar climbed all the way from ¥108.134 to ¥109.3. Stocks were boosted by the weaker Yen; Hitachi gained 2%, Sony Corp climbed 2.67% and Toshiba climbed 1.83%. The Hang Seng, however, dropped 0.49% as bank and energy shares declined. HSBC Holdings lost 0.76%, China Construction Bank dropped 0.52% and the Bank of China dropped 0.81%.
European markets are lower today. The German Unemployment Change was released and was significantly better than expected. The forecast was to see the figure at 5,000, however, the actual result declined by 22,000. Investors, instead, focused on the Fed statement and sentiment dropped. Traders are also cautious as they are waiting for the German CPI to be released at 1PM GMT. Currently, The FTSE 100 is down 0.58% while Germany’s DAX is off 0.47% and France’s CAC 40 is lower by 0.08%.
October 30, 2014 – Indices News
Yesterday, the FOMC Meeting Minutes were released following the Feds two day meeting. Much speculation was seen before as their comments were expected to be more dovish. As expected the Fed ended their quantitative easing problem but they also made hawkish remarks regarding the labour market which came as a surprise. They showed confidence in the outlook and noted that recent events in Europe are unlikely to affect their goals. There was no direct mention of a potential earlier hike in interest rates but it was stated that any decision made would be dependent on economic data and market performance. Following the release U.S. stocks declined. The S&P 500 lost 0.14% and the Dow Jones lost 0.18%.
Asian markets were mixed. The Nikkei climbed 0.647% as the Dollar strengthened against the Yen after the FOMC statement. The Dollar climbed all the way from ¥108.134 to ¥109.3. Stocks were boosted by the weaker Yen; Hitachi gained 2%, Sony Corp climbed 2.67% and Toshiba climbed 1.83%. The Hang Seng, however, dropped 0.49% as bank and energy shares declined. HSBC Holdings lost 0.76%, China Construction Bank dropped 0.52% and the Bank of China dropped 0.81%.
European markets are lower today. The German Unemployment Change was released and was significantly better than expected. The forecast was to see the figure at 5,000, however, the actual result declined by 22,000. Investors, instead, focused on the Fed statement and sentiment dropped. Traders are also cautious as they are waiting for the German CPI to be released at 1PM GMT. Currently, The FTSE 100 is down 0.58% while Germany’s DAX is off 0.47% and France’s CAC 40 is lower by 0.08%.
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