Global Stocks Pause on Fed Outlook
2019年5月2日 - 05:31PM
Dow Jones News
By Paul J. Davies
Asian and European stocks showed a mixed reaction on Thursday to
the U.S. interest rate decision the previous day when Wall Street
benchmarks ended lower.
The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.8% and South Korea's Kospi
Index rose 0.4%, but the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.4% at the
start of trading and the FTSE 100 in London fell 0.5%.
Investors in Asia took a more positive message on the health of
the U.S. and global economies from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome
Powell's press conference than U.S. markets had the night
before.
The central bank left interest rates unchanged and its initial
policy statement appeared to emphasize weaker-than-expected
inflation, which prompted U.S. stocks to rally and government bond
yields to fall on the idea that future interest-rate cuts were more
likely.
However, Mr. Powell's later press conference highlighted
short-term explanations for soft inflation and he stopped short of
endorsing a rate cut when pushed on how he would respond to further
weak data.
"He also spoke positively about the growth outlook in China and
Europe, and said that financial conditions are accommodative," said
Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank. "All in all, he sounded more optimistic
about the economy than expected."
The S&P 500 ended the day down 0.8% and the Dow Jones
Industrial Average was 0.6% lower. However, futures markets pointed
to a better opening for both on Thursday with increases of slightly
more than 0.1% priced in.
The outlook for healthier economies along with the downbeat news
of rate cuts appearing less likely presented a balanced outlook for
markets. Signs that better growth was winning out and encouraging
risk taking were evident in government bond yields Thursday morning
where yields were lifted as prices fell.
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was 2.527% Thursday morning from
2.510% Wednesday, while the German 10-year bund yield also moved
further into positive territory to 0.023% from 0.016%.
On the other hand, the U.S. dollar, which had strengthened
marginally late on Wednesday, weakened again Thursday morning with
the WSJ Dollar Index down 0.03%.
In commodities, Brent crude oil slipped 0.5% to $71.81 a barrel,
and gold fell 1% to $1.273.20 per ounce.
Write to Paul J. Davies at paul.davies@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 02, 2019 04:16 ET (08:16 GMT)
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