By IFCMarkets
US stocks ended slightly higher on Tuesday as investors awaited interest rate decisions by Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan at conclusion of policy meetings on September 21. The Bank of Japan announced today it will target 10-year interest rates aiming to bring inflation up by continuing asset purchases and keeping 10-year interest rates around zero. The Bank of Japan left its deposit rate unchanged at negative 0.1%. The dollar inched higher against the yen adding to yesterday’s slight gains: the live dollar index data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar’s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, ended 0.1% higher at 95.977 Tuesday. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced less than 0.1% to 18129.96 led by shares of McDonald’s. The S&P 500 added 0.64 points settling at 2139.76 led by gains in health-care and consumer-staples stocks. The Nasdaq index rose 0.1% to 5241.35. There is only a slim chance the Federal Reserve might raise rates today after recent soft economic data. And housing starts data released yesterday were weak too: July housing starts were below expectations at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.14 million. They fell 5.8% on month, and were 0.9% lower than a year ago. Investors estimate the likelihood of a rate hike in low teens: the fund futures market is pricing a 15% chance of a rate hike as of Tuesday, up by 3 percentage points from a previous day. Federal Reserve Interest Rate decision will be announced today at 20:00 CET. No change in monetary policy is expected. Before that at 13:00 CET Mortgage Applications will be released by the Mortgage Bankers’ Association.
European stocks closed lower on Tuesday with markets in a wait and see mode ahead of central bank decision. Both the euro and British Pound weakened against the dollar. The Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.1%. Energy stocks were the worst performers as oil prices fell for most of the European trading session: the Stoxx Europe 600 Oil and Gas index dropped 0.9%. The DAX 30 rose 0.2% to 10393.86, while the CAC 40 slipped 0.1%. UK.’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3% settling at 6830.79. British stocks were boosted by a weaker pound. Today at 10:30 CET August Public Sector Net Borrowing will be published in UK, the tentative outlook is negative for Pound.
Asian stocks are rising today after the Bank of Japan surprised markets by abandoning its base money target and instead setting a “yield curve control” under which it will buy long-term government bonds to keep 10-year bond yields around current levels of zero percent. The Japanese central bank maintained its 0.1% negative interest rate. Nikkei jumped 1.9% today to 16807.62 as yen weakened against the dollar. The central bank reaffirmed its commitment to reaching its 2% inflation target as quickly as possible and modified its purchases of exchange traded funds, with 2.7 trillion yen ($26.33 billion) to be allocated and linked to the Topix index. Bank stocks were the best performers gaining 6.9% as concerns alleviated that further cut in excess deposit rate into negative territory would hurt bank profits. Chinese stocks are rising led by property and financial stocks, Shanghai Composite Index is 0.08% higher with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index up 0.6%. Australia’s All Ordinaries Index gained 0.8%.
Oil futures prices are rising today after the industry group American Petroleum Institute reported late Tuesday a 7.5 million barrel draw to 507.2 million barrels in US crude stockpiles last week. November Brent crude finished 0.2% lower at $45.88 a barrel on London’s ICE Futures exchange on Tuesday. Today at 16:30 CET US Crude Oil Inventories will be released by the Energy Information Administration.
Gold is edging higher pairing early losses as dollar weakens ahead of Federal Reserve interest rate decision today. The Fed is expected to keep interest rate unchanged today, which will boost gold. Spot gold is up 1% percent at $1327.65. Platinum has gained 0.8% to $1037.4, spot silver is up nearly 1 percent to $19.40 an ounce.
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