Global shares were mixed Wednesday, with European indexes mostly higher and Asian markets posting moderate declines. An easing in US rate hike expectations following a speech by one of the Federal Reserve’s policymakers helped shore up stock markets around the world on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016.
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FILE – This Oct. 4, 2014, file photo, shows the facade of the New York Stock Exchange.
Sept 13 (Reuters) – Wall Street looked set to open lower on Tuesday as oil prices fell and investors reassessed the possibility of a near-term rise in US interest rates. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.2 percent at 6,712.
An easing in USA rate hike expectations following a speech by one of the Federal Reserve’s policymakers helped shore up stock markets around the world on Tuesday. In morning inter-bank trading, the shekel was up 0.34% against the dollar from yesterday’s representative rate at NIS 3.785/$, and was up 0.29% against the euro at NIS 4.249/€. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell dropped 1.5 percent to 2,127.02 and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.1 percent, to 5,155.25. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng inched up almost 0.2 percent to 23,254.03. South Korean markets were closed for a national holiday.
Futures traders cut the chances of a Fed rate hike at the central bank’s Sept 20-21 meeting to just 15 percent from 21 percent, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
THE QUOTE: “Another nail in the coffin overnight, as both OPEC and the International Energy Agency, revised their oil demand figures for 2017 down”, said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda.
Dow e-minis were down 111 points, or 0.61 percent, with 10,274 contracts changing hands at 8:24 a.m. ET (1224 GMT). “While a hawkish consensus does appear to be building among the committee, the absence of some key policy makers from this makes a hike at the meeting next week very unlikely”.
OIL: Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.00 cents to $45.29 per barrel in NY. The euro dipped 0.1 percent to $1.1220 while the yen was all but flat at 101.90 per dollar.
Shares of Japan-listed Softbank fell 1.6% on Tuesday. Brent crude, the benchmark for global oil prices, rose 35 cents to $47.45 a barrel in London.
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The U.S. dollar gained against the yen and riskier commodity currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars on Tuesday after the impact of dovish remarks from a top Federal Reserve official faded, boosting sentiment toward the greenback.
