Morning all
Thanks AM crew
SPI: +32 @ 5355
XJO Yesterday: +36 @ 5340
The Old Girl kicked markets back into life overnight, keeping rates on hold, removing the uncertainty that has shadowed sentiment of late, sending the Nasdaq into record territory and gold up diddly up.
The central bank strongly signaled it could still tighten monetary policy by the end of this year as the labor market improved further.
Earlier on Wednesday, global markets reacted to the Bank of Japan's abrupt shift to targeting interest rates on government bonds to achieve its elusive inflation target.
Old Girl Janet Yellen said U.S. growth was looking stronger and rate increases would be needed to keep the economy from overheating and fuelling high inflation.
After the Fed's statement, traders were betting on a 63-percent chance of a December rate increase, up from 58 percent just before the statement, according to the FedWatch website.
"The body language makes it sound like they're warming people up for December," said Stephen Massocca, chief investment officer at Wedbush Equity Management in San Francisco. 1
S&P: + 1.1%
Nasdaq: +1%
Oil prices rose as much as 3 percent on Wednesday after a third surprise weekly drop in U.S. crude stockpiles boosted the demand outlook in the world's largest oil consumer.
Another supportive factor was an oil workers' strike in Norway, which threatened to cut North Sea crude output.
Prices jumped after the U.S. Energy Information Administration stunned the market when it said crude inventories fell 6.2 million barrels last week. Forecasters in a Reuters poll had expected a 3.4 million-barrel build. 1
Oil prices rose as much as 3 percent on Wednesday after a third surprise weekly drop in U.S. crude stockpiles boosted the demand outlook in the world's largest oil consumer.
The dollar weakened .DXY after the Federal Reserve left U.S. interest rates unchanged, which also buoyed prices for dollar-denominated crude. [FRX/]
Another supportive factor was an oil workers' strike in Norway, which threatened to cut North Sea crude output.
Prices jumped after the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) stunned the market when it said crude inventories fell 6.2 million barrels last week. Forecasters in a Reuters poll had expected a 3.4 million-barrel build.
Technically, December gold futures prices were near the session high and scored a bullish “outside day” up on the daily bar chart today. The gold bulls have the overall near-term technical advantage, as prices are not that far below this year’s high. Gold bulls’ next upside near-term price breakout objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at the September high of $1,357.60. 2
