China stocks have stepped back, failing to build on robust gains the previous day as many investors sat on their hands before the long National Day holiday that begins on October 1.
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Platinum edged up 0.3 percent at $1,054.20.
Based on current forecasts, the U.S. unemployment rate was projected to fall below 4.5% by 2019 which risked “overheating” the economy, the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Boston, Eric Rosengren, said in a statement explaining the reasoning behind his decision to dissent from the Federal Reserve’s decision on 21 September to stay put on policy.
“It’s another example of the issues facing investors right now, particularly pension funds and retirement funds, that they are all chasing yield in the same places”, said Ian Winer, co-head of equities trading at Wedbush Securities. That’s one reason why we hear so many conflicting views from different Fed officials recently, and why their strategy revisions are so frequent.
Federal Reserve staff forecasts, like those of the bulk of private forecasters, see the labor market tightening considerably over the next three years – and this is the case even assuming more rate increases than are now anticipated by market participants and reflected in market rates.
“The Fed lowering its medium term rate guidance path while keeping a rate hike in play at the end of this year has left the dollar very finely balanced”, said Yujiro Goto, currency strategist at Nomura. The central bank said risks to its economic outlook are “roughly balanced”.
The dollar rose by 1 percent against the Canadian dollar after surprisingly weak inflation and retail sales data that suggested Canada could be facing lower growth and higher unemployment.
The 10-year US Treasuries yield dropped to as low as 1.608 per cent, down sharply from Wednesday’s high of 1.738 per cent and hitting its lowest level in nearly two weeks.
U.S. gold futures slipped 0.4 per cent to $1,339 an ounce. Palladium was down 0.2 per cent at $691.50, after rising 1.5 per cent on Thursday.
Energy companies followed oil prices higher.
Other commodities also rose, which helped out materials stocks. The dollar was up 0.15 percent at 100.90 yen, not far from a almost four-week low of 100.10 struck on Thursday and on course to shed more than 1 percent for the week.
Freeport-McMoRan, the mining giant, jumped 44 cents, or 4.2 percent, to $10.98.
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The euro fetched $1.1197, recovering from Wednesday’s three-week low of $1.1123.
