FXStreet (Mumbai) – The major equity indices in the US have held on to their gains as the Fed, via its latest policy statement, kept the doors open for a data dependent rate hike this year.
The S&P 500 index, up 0.5% at 2105, has barely moved after the FOMC statement. The DJIA also trades largely unchanged after the event at 17,730.50; up 0.5% on the day.
The Fed said it was seeing “solid” job gains and that labour market slack had diminished, but stated that some more improvement in the labor markets is needed before rates could move higher. Overall, the policy statement hardly had anything new to offer, as evident from the lackluster response from the treasury yields.
Earlier today, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 index rose 1%, extending 1.1% rise seen on Tuesday, on the back of upbeat earnings reports. The European and the US equity markets cheered the rebound witnessed in the Chinese stock markets, which suffered a10% drop in the first two trading days of the week.
With Fed out of the way, focus now shifts to the US preliminary Q2 GDP data due for release on Thursday. Earlier this week, the official data in the US revealed durable goods orders in June ticked higher.
(Market News Provided by FXstreet)