Asia-Pacific markets mostly rose Wednesday as investors digested U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff impact on regional economies.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, meanwhile, re-emphasized on Tuesday the central bank's focus on curbing inflation and signaled that policymakers were not in a rush to push interest rates lower.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 traded up 0.31%.
Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.21% after resuming trading following a holiday, while the Topix slid 0.22%. South Korea's Kospi added 0.29% and the small-cap Kosdaq lost 0.36%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 2.05% while mainland China's CSI 300 traded 0.16% higher.
India is slated to report its inflation data for January. SoftBank Group will be posting its fiscal third-quarter earnings later in the day.
Overnight in the U.S., the three major averages closed mixed. The S&P 500 added 0.03% to end at 6,068.50, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.36% to close at 19,643.86. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 123.24 points, or 0.28%, to 44,593.65.
Powell's testimony comes at a volatile time in Washington with President Donald Trump favoring tariffs against U.S. trading partners and with mixed messages coming from the administration on its approach to the Fed.
Powell said the current policy stance, with the benchmark Fed funds rate in a range between 4.25% and 4.5%, is providing flexibility. The Federal Open Market Committee held the rate in place at its late-January meeting.(Cay)
Source: CNBC
European shares closed higher on Thursday after a series of lukewarm sessions, as investors welcomed the U.S. Federal Reserve's overnight interest rate cut and assessed a policy decision from the Swis...
Both the STOXX 50 and the STOXX 600 slipped 0.2% on Thursday, marking a third straight session of losses for the former. Weak sales and profit forecasts from Oracle weighed on the tech sector, oversh...
Asia-Pacific markets opened higher on Thursday morning after the Federal Reserve delivered its third interest rate cut this year. The Fed cut the Fed Funds Rate by 25 bps to a range of 3.5%–3.75% and ...
European equities edged lower on Wednesday as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy decision, limiting risk taking across regional markets. The STOXX 50 fell 0.3%,...
European shares inched lower on Wednesday, as investors refrained from placing big bets ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, while also parsing through a slate of corporate upda...
European shares closed higher on Thursday after a series of lukewarm sessions, as investors welcomed the U.S. Federal Reserve's overnight interest rate cut and assessed a policy decision from the Swiss National Bank. The pan-European STOXX 600...
Silver climbed above $61 per ounce, extending a record rally as markets digested the Fed's 25 basis point cut and parsed Chair Powell's remarks which markets read as relatively dovish even as committee guidance remained cautious. The cut itself...
Gold prices surged tonight due to a combination of dovish sentiment from the Fed and market concerns about the future economic outlook. Following the interest rate cut and signals that the Fed is no longer aggressive about raising interest rates,...
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) will be released on Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Due to the prolonged...
The latest survey data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported an increase in JOLTs Job Openings, a key indicator of the health of the...
European stocks edged higher on Tuesday (December 9th) as global investors awaited the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy update.
The...
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Tuesday there is "plenty of room" to cut interest rates further, though he noted that rising...