The US central bank on Wednesday announced raising benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points, the first rate hike since 2006, marking the end of an era of extraordinary easing monetary policies.
Advertisement
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Broke Box Office Records Last Night
While spoilers will not be given out, the film was full of surprises while paying homage to both trilogies that came before it. Greenfield said the success of “Force Awakens” would not be enough to offset the impact of subscriber losses at ESPN.
The quarterly event, known as “quadruple witching”, signals the expiration of index futures, single- stock futures, index options and single-stock options, and brings a surge of end-of-day volume.
House Approves .1 Trillion Spending Bill
The deal marks a major achievement for new Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who delivered 150 Republican votes for the spending bill. Under a plan worked out in bipartisan negotiations, the legislation would be combined and voted on in the Senate the same day.
“The good news is we had this massive uncertainty move out of the way without any damage to the markets”, said Adam Sarhan, founder and chief executive officer of investment firm Sarhan Capital.
DNC Sanctions Sanders Campaign For Accessing Clinton’s Voter Data
Bernie Sanders has filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to regain access to a Democratic National Committee voter database. We will continue to work with and report to the DNC regarding this issue to ensure that this isolated incident does not recur.
Nine of the 10 major S&P sectors were lower, led by the interest rate-sensitive utilities sector’s .SPLRCU 1.78 percent fall. The S&P 500 leapt 29.66 points, or 1.45 percent, to 2,073.07.
European stocks ended higher, off session highs, while Asian equities closed higher with the Nikkei up more than 1.5 percent.
Investors will now keep a weather eye on data to gauge the economy’s capacity to withstand higher rates.
“The headwinds remain strong in the manufacturing sector, but the Fed right now is more focused on the strong consumer spending and housing data, which means it will go ahead with a rate hike today”, Thomas Costerg, a USA economist at Standard Chartered Bank in NY, told Reuters.
Wall Street suffered a sell-off overnight, as investors were once again spooked by a big drop in the crude oil price.
Fed fund futures 0#FF: dipped in response, yet the December 2016 contract implies a rate of only 0.83 percent, well below the 1.25 to 1.5 percent favoured by the central bank.
The S&P 500 posted 13 new 52-week highs and 24 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 46 new highs and 104 new lows.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.6 percent by 1144 GMT, while the euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index weakened 0.9 percent.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the US benchmark for oil prices, shed 1.97 percent to $34.82 per barrel for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The CBOE Volatility Index, a measure of anticipated future swings in the S&P 500, rose 7.7 per cent to 20.39 on Friday.
Moves in short-term US Treasuries were modest, After touching 1.021 percent on Wednesday, a 5-1/2 year high, yields on two-year notes were last at 0.9966 percent.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index fell less than 0.1%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1%.
The Nasdaq has added 137.67 points, or 2.8 percent.
Advertisement
Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 1,849 to 1,200, for a 1.54-to-1 ratio on the downside; on the Nasdaq, 1,706 issues fell and 1,100 advanced for a 1.55-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.
