Overnight saw expectations of a March rate cut by the US Federal Reserve sunder bond and stock markets with Wall Street losing nearly 1% and other risk markets also falling. Fed Chair Powell after the latest FOMC meeting said a cut was “unlikely”, keeping currency markets in a volatile mood with the USD initially down against most of the majors before recovering. The Australian dollar was the least effected as it remains just below the 66 cent level in the wake of yesterday’s soft CPI print.
10 year Treasury yields were pushed back below the 4% level briefly before stabilising as chances of a March rate cut disappeared while oil prices also felt the risk heat with Brent crude falling down to the $80USD per barrel level. Meanwhile gold had a volatile session lifting up through $2050USD per ounce before settling just above the $2030 level.
Looking at share markets in Asia from yesterday’s session where mainland Chinese share markets fell sharply again in afternoon trade as the Shanghai Composite moved nearly 1% lower to 2804 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index moved in a similar direction, down 1.4% to 15491 points.