Wall Street’s key indices gave a collective yawn to news that the US Federal Reserve left interest rates on hold rather than fuel inflation with a cut
At 7:20am, the S&P 500 and Dow were flat, while the Nasdaq was up around 0.4%.
Mid-session, the S&P 500 briefly nudged through the 7,000-point level for the first time before slipping back, and it is currently just a couple of points higher, just on pace to extend its winning streak to six sessions.
The flat mood is likely to wash up on our shores with ASX 200 futures marginally lower (-0.05%) ahead of the opening.
The key message out of the Fed was while the US economy was expanding at a “solid pace” and unemployment was “stabilising”, inflation was still a concern and “somewhat elevated”.
Just north of the border, the Bank of Canada also left rates on hold.
The Fed’s Open Market Committee voted 10-to-2 in favour of keeping rates on hold, with Governors Christopher Waller, a contender to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell when his term as central bank chief ends in May, and Governor Stephen Miran, on leave from his job as an economic adviser at the White House, dissenting in favour of a quarter-percentage-point rate cut.
With the Fed’s decision out of the way, Wall Street will shift its focus to the earnings results from the likes of Microsoft, Tesla and Meta Platforms, which are due to drop after the closing bell.
Global stocks, as measured by the MSCI, slipped marginally, dragged down by softness in Europe.
In commodity markets, gold continued to march higher, punching through $US5,300/ounce.
Oil also jumped to a four-month high with the global benchmark Brent Crude approaching $69.00/barrel on escalating tensions in the Gulf and low US inventories.
The Aussie dollar remained solid overnight, still hovering above the 70 US cent mark.