Both the dollar and U. S. Treasury yields spiked following big news out of the Federal Reserve.
Both the dollar and U. S. Treasury yields spiked following big news out of the Federal Reserve.
The Fed announced Wednesday it would start winding down its $4.5 trillion balance sheet in October. While the Fed left interest rates unchanged — as was widely expected — it indicated that one additional rate hike was probable this year. The central bank kept its forecast for interest rates in 2017 and 2018, but lowered its expectation for the number of rate hikes between now and 2019 by one.
Yields on the 10-year U. S. Treasury note rose to their highest levels since Aug. 8 on the news. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield stood at 2.27 percent on Wednesday after climbing as high as 2.29 percent. Meanwhile, the two-year Treasury note yielded as high as 1.451 percent, touching its highest levels since 2008.
There were also foreign exchange moves following the announcement, with the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of currencies, rising to 92.447 at 6:57 a.m. HK/SIN. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar fetched 112.28 yen, its highest levels since mid-July.
“The Fed did not surprise, but the underlying signal was more hawkish than markets expected,” said David Plank, head of Australian economics at ANZ, in a note.
Stateside, most indexes closed higher on Wednesday as financial stocks made gains. The Dow Jones industrial average tacked on 0.19 percent, or 41.79 points, to close at 22,412.59 and the S&P 500 advanced 0.06 percent to end at 2,508.24. The Nasdaq ended the session lower, falling 0.08 percent to close at 6,456.04.
Back in Asia, futures suggested a subdued open for Japanese equities. Nikkei futures traded in Chicago were 0.02 percent higher at 20,315 while Osaka futures were off 0.2 percent at 20,270. Those compared to the benchmark index’s previous close of 20,310.46.
Australian SPI futures edged up 0.1 percent to 5,715 compared to the S&P/ASX 200’s Wednesday close of 5.709.091.
Malaysia and Indonesia markets are closed for holidays.
In corporate news, Japan’s Toshiba said Wednesday it would sell its memory chip unit to a consortium backed by Bain Capital. While Bain had brought SK Hynix in on the deal, Toshiba did not mention the South Korean chip maker in its announcement, Reuters reported. The deal would be worth around 2 trillion yen ($18 billion), Reuters added.
Meanwhile, Western Digital said it would be commencing arbitration against Toshiba through its subsidiaries. The U. S. data storage company, which is involved in joint ventures with Toshiba, had been part of another group that had attempted to buy the Japanese conglomerate’s flash memory unit.
The Bank of Japan is expected to issue a monetary policy statement on Thursday, and here’s the rest of the economic calendar for the day (all times in HK/SIN):
The Philippine and Taiwanese central banks also make rates decisions later in the day.
