At this week’s policy meeting the Fed stopped short of indicating that a further increase in USA interest rates is on the cards for later this year.
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The euro stood little changed at $1.1085 EUR= . The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 2.5 percent second-quarter increase.
The Bank of Japan’s Monetary Policy Meeting (MPM) today saw its Policy Board announce, by majority vote, that it would increase its exchange-traded fund purchasing program in a bid to expand stimulus.
It also left the interest charged on a portion of excess reserves that financial institutions park with the central bank unchanged the 0.1 per cent. That helped the yen surge in the currency markets as investors priced in fewer yen in circulation – the dollar was 2.1 percent lower at 103.03 yen.
“The BOJ’s disappointment, which also follows the European Central Bank and BOE’s recent decisions to hold off easing, may just cause markets to re-assess whether they had front-run things too much”, said Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.in Singapore. The S&P 500 .SPX rose 4.86 points, or 0.22 percent, to 2,174.92 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 11.08 points, or 0.21 percent, to 5,166.07.
WALL STREET: Stocks had another day of meager gains on Thursday as investors worked through a new batch of mixed company earnings, including results from Facebook, Ford and Whole Foods.
The Japanese yen went through the roof on Friday after the Bank of Japan stunned the markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 1.3 percent to 21,891.37.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 14.41 points, or 0.08%, to 18,441.94. Exxon Mobile had its smallest quarterly profit in 17 years, well below what analysts were looking for. Yields are set for a weekly drop, driving them back toward the record low of 1.32 percent reached July 6, after Fed officials signaled they are in no rush to raise interest rates, even as they noted that near-term risks to the economic outlook have diminished.
ASIA’S DAY: Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.6 percent to 16,569.27, recovering from earlier losses. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 rose 0.1 percent to 5,560.40. Futures for December delivery rose 1.2 percent to settle at $1,357.50 in NY.
NEW YORK – Weak US GDP data knocked down the dollar and yields on US government debt on Friday, while Japanese government bond yields rose the most in eight years after investors coolly received the Bank of Japan’s latest effort to boost the economy. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.1 percent to settle at $41.60 a barrel.
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Oil prices fell to their lowest levels since April, with Brent on track for its biggest monthly loss since December 2015, pressured by slowing economic growth that threatens to increase a supply overhang of crude and refined products.
