TOKYO, March 23 (AP): Global shares were mixed on Thursday after the Federal Reserve raised a key interest rate, while noting the end may be near for its economy-crunching hikes to interest rates.
France’s CAC 40 declined 0.3 per cent in early trading to 7,112.95, while Germany’s DAX slipped 0.2 per cent to 15,183.25.
Britain’s FTSE 100 dipped 0.5 per cent to 7,532.54. US shares were set to drift higher with Dow futures up 0.5 per cent to 32,430.00. S and P 500 futures added 0.7 per cent to 3,999.75.
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In Britain, investors were awaiting an interest rate decision by the Bank of England.
Many economists had expected the central bank to keep rates on hold, until the unwelcome news this week that soaring prices for vegetables helped push inflation to 10.4 per cent in February.
The Fed raised its key overnight rate by a quarter of a percentage point, the same size as its last increase, in its campaign to drive down inflation.
That effort has been complicated by turmoil in the banking sector, with investors worried that more banks might fail after Silicon Valley Bank’s recent collapse.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.2 per cent to finish at 27,419.61. Australia’s S and P/ASX 200 slipped 0.7 per cent to 6,968.60. South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.3 per cent to 2,424.48.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.3 per cent to 20,049.64 after China Evergrande Group, a real estate developer whose struggle to manage more than USD300 billion in debt rattled global financial markets, announced a long-awaited plan to restructure what it owes to foreign bondholders.
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.6 per cent to 3,286.65. Shares fell in India but rose in Taiwan.
The Fed’s move was exactly what Wall Street was expecting. The bigger question was where the Fed is heading next.
There, the Fed gave a hint it may not hike rates much more as it assesses the fallout from the banking industry’s crisis.
Instead of repeating its statement that “ongoing increases will be appropriate,” the Fed said Wednesday that it now only sees “some additional policy firming may be appropriate.”
Chair Jerome Powell emphasised the shift to ”may” from “will.”
The Fed also released the latest set of projections from its policy makers on where rates are heading in upcoming years.
The median forecast had the federal funds rate sitting at 5.1 per cent at the end of this year, up only a smidge from where it currently sits, in a range of 4.75 per cent to 5 per cent.
The yield on the two-year Treasury, which tends to track expectations for the Fed, tumbled to 3.46 per cent from 4.13 per cent just before the projections were released. It was above 5 per cent earlier this month.
Powell said Wednesday the Fed is still focused on getting inflation down to its 2 per cent goal and is not envisioning any rate cuts this year. He also said the Fed could begin raising rates again if high inflation makes that necessary.
The Fed was stuck with a difficult decision as it balanced whether to keep hiking rates or ease off the increases given the pain felt by banks.
The second- and third-largest US bank failures in history have both occurred in the last two weeks.
A worry is that too much pressure on the banking system, particularly among the smaller and mid-sized banks at the centre of investors’ crosshairs, would mean fewer loans made to businesses across the country.
That in turn could mean less hiring and less economic activity, pushing the risk of recession still higher.
In energy trading, benchmark US crude fell 40 cents to USD 70.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard lost 33 cents to USD 76.36 a barrel.
In currency trading, the US dollar fell to 131.12 Japanese yen from 131.39 yen. The euro cost USD 1.0902, up from USD 1.0857.
