Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Thursday morning steered clear of previous hints at a December rate hike during a speech at a monetary policy conference in Washington D.C.on Thursday morning. Dow Jones Industrial Average contracts fell 125 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 17,530 today.
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The dollar slipped a little against the euro on Thursday as expectations firmed on a Federal Reserve interest rate increase in December. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 2.4 percent to 22,888.92 while the Shanghai Composite Index in mainland China sank 0.5 percent to 3,632.90.
Fed “policymakers should be mindful of new channels for monetary policy transmission that may have emerged from the intricate economic and financial linkages in our global economy that were revealed by the crisis”, she said in prepared remarks. The shares have doubled in value in recent months, but remain below their 2011 IPO price of $13 a share.
Global stock markets drifted lower Thursday as investors looked past a few fairly dovish remarks from the head of the European Central Bank and awaited a slew of comments from Federal Reserve officials, notably those of Fed Chair Janet Yellen.
Minutes of the U.S. central bank’s July 28-29 policy meeting said Fed staffers “would soon begin an extended effort to evaluate potential long-run monetary policy implementation frameworks”, a project that was expected to run through the end of 2016.
Topix index lost 0.1%, slipping from the highest level in more than 11 weeks, as investors weighed earnings from DeNA Co. and Toppan Printing Co. and banks fell ahead of results announcement.
Data today showed applications for unemployment benefits were unchanged in the first week of November, signaling employers with a healthier appetite for hiring are also holding the line on firings. Freshpet plunged $2.23, or 27 percent, to $6.12. The Fed has kept its benchmark rate at a record low near zero for the past seven years.
Cisco Systems (CSCO), Petrobras (Sao Paulo Stock Exchange: PETR’-BR), Applied Materials (AMAT), Nordstrom (JWN), Blue Buffalo (BUFF) and El Pollo Loco (LOCO) are among the companies due to report after the bell.
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Viacom was down 5.8 percent at $46.50 after its quarterly profit and revenue missed estimates. On the Nasdaq, 2,005 issues fell and 748 advanced.
