{"id":113192,"date":"2017-09-20T07:30:53","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T11:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=113192"},"modified":"2017-09-20T06:32:11","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T10:32:11","slug":"federal-reserves-decision-in-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2017\/09\/federal-reserves-decision-in-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Reserve\u2019s decision in focus"},"content":{"rendered":"
September 20, 2017<\/div>
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By IFCMarkets<\/a><\/p>\n

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All three major US stock indices close at record highs<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

US stock indices\u00a0<\/b>ended at record highs on Tuesday as Federal Reserve two-day meeting, expected to produce a decision on starting date and pace of its balance sheet reduction, commenced. The dollar weakened: the\u00a0live dollar index<\/a>\u00a0data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure of the dollar\u2019s strength against a basket of six rival currencies, slipped 0.2% to 91.82. The\u00a0S&P 500\u00a0<\/em>added 0.1% settling at record high 2506.65, led by telecom stocks.\u00a0Dow Jones\u00a0<\/em>industrial average rose 0.2% closing at fresh record high 22370.80. The\u00a0Nasdaq<\/a>composite index gained 0.1% to record high 6461.32.<\/p>\n

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Treasury yields were little changed ahead of the Federal Reserve decision. Traders will focus on details about the Fed\u2019s planned reduction of its bond holdings. The Fed is expected to start shrinking its balance sheet by $10 billion a month, increasing the pace by $10 billion every quarter up to a maximum of $50 billion a month. Also changes to Fed members\u2019 forecasts for future interest rates known as the dot plot will be in focus, for indication of a change in policy makers\u2019 stance. While there is a widespread concern about slow pick-up in inflation as the economy operates at full employment, recent stronger than expected inflation report supports the case for continuing rate hikes. Economic data were mixed: new houses in August declined 0.8% to an annual rate of 1.18 million, building permits jumped 5.7%. At the same time import prices climbed 0.6% in August.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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European stocks extend gains<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

European stocks\u00a0<\/b>closed higher on Tuesday in cautious trade. Both the\u00a0euro\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0British Pound\u00a0<\/em>ended higher against the dollar. The Stoxx Europe 600 inched 0.04% higher. Germany\u2019s\u00a0DAX 30\u00a0<\/a>gained 0.02% closing at 12561.79. France\u2019s\u00a0CAC 40<\/em>\u00a0advanced 0.2% and UK\u2019sFTSE 100\u00a0<\/em>rose 0.3% to 7275.25. National indices opened lower today except for France’s CAC 40 which opened 0.1% higher.<\/p>\n

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In economic news the ZEW economic expectations index for Germany jumped to 17.0 in September, up from 10.0 in August, beating forecasts of a 12.7 reading.<\/p>\n

\"GB<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Asian markets higher<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Asian stock indices<\/b>\u00a0are mostly higher today while investor refrained from big bets ahead of Fed\u2019s policy decision.\u00a0Nikkei\u00a0<\/em>rose 0.1% to 20310.46 despite resumed yen strength against the dollar. Chinese stocks are higher: both the\u00a0Shanghai Composite Index\u00a0<\/em>and Hong Kong\u2019s\u00a0Hang Seng Index\u00a0<\/em>are 0.2% up. Australia\u2019s All Ordinaries Index is down 0.1% as Australian dollar resumed strengthening against the greenback.<\/p>\n

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Oil climbs ahead of US inventory report<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Oil futures prices\u00a0<\/b>are rising today after Iraq\u2019s oil minister said OPEC and other crude producers were considering extending or even deepening a supply cut. The American Petroleum Institute industry group reported late Tuesday US crude stocks rose by 1.4 million barrels last week to 470.3 million, instead of expected 3.5 million barrels increase. Prices slipped yesterday: November Brent crude fell 0.6% to $55.14 a barrel on London\u2019s ICE Futures exchange on Tuesday. Today at 16:30 CET the Energy Information Administration will release US Crude Oil Inventories.<\/p>\n

Market Analysis provided by IFCMarkets<\/a><\/p>

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Note:
\nThis overview has an informative and tutorial character and is published for free. All the data, included in the overview, are received from public sources, recognized as more or less reliable. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the indicated information is full and precise. Overviews are not updated. The whole information in each overview, including opinion, indicators, charts and anything else, is provided only for familiarization purposes and is not financial advice or \u0430 recommendation. The whole text and its any part, as well as the charts cannot be considered as an offer to make a deal with any asset. IFC Markets and its employees under any circumstances are not liable for any action taken by someone else during or after reading the overview.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By IFCMarkets All three major US stock indices close at record highs US stock indices\u00a0ended at record highs on Tuesday as Federal Reserve two-day meeting, expected to produce a decision on starting date and pace of its balance sheet reduction, commenced. The dollar weakened: the\u00a0live dollar index\u00a0data show the ICE US Dollar index, a measure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113192"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113206,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113192\/revisions\/113206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}