By Shashwat Chauhan <\/p>\n
Sept 16 (Reuters) – Global stocks advanced on Wednesday as recent rises in government bond yields and oil prices stalled ahead of a key U.S. Federal Reserve interest-rate decision later in the day. <\/p>\n
MSCI’s global equities index gained 0.2% after falling in the previous \u200ctwo sessions. An index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.6%, snapping a four-day losing streak. <\/p>\n
Most bourses in Europe were trading higher. The \u200cpan-European STOXX 600 added 0.6% and benchmarks of Germany, France and Spain all saw gains. <\/p>\n
Futures tracking the main U.S. stock indexes also pointed towards a higher open after the benchmark S&P 500 \u200bindex closed lower on Tuesday for a second straight session as the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond hit its highest level since 2007. <\/p>\n
The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note inched lower to stand at 4.97% after hitting the 5% mark earlier in the session. It rose above that threshold on Tuesday for the first time in three years, to hit its highest level since 2007. <\/p>\n
The Federal Reserve will announce its policy decision at 1800 GMT (2 p.m. ET), followed by a \u200cpress conference by Chair Kevin Warsh. <\/p>\n
“It’s a question of \u2060credibility for him to hike right now. If he doesn’t hike this evening, it could be a problem for the Fed’s credibility, its independence and for the stock market,” said Micha\u00ebl Nizard, head of multi-asset and overlay at Edmond de Rothschild \u2060Asset Management in Paris. <\/p>\n
“It’s also a question of guidance and a reaction function from the Fed. Today, it’s very difficult to describe exactly what is a reaction function of the Fed.” <\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated a preference for lower interest rates, saying last month the U.S. would stop trading with countries with which it runs a \u200btrade \u200bdeficit if the Fed did not cut rates. <\/p>\n
Traders have largely brushed aside those comments and \u200bsee a rate hike as almost certain. Markets are pricing \u200cin a 92.7% probability of a 25-basis-point increase when the Fed announces its decision, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool, up from 61.2% a week ago. <\/p>\n
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. currency against a basket of six others, held firm at 99.64, nearing a two-week high. <\/p>\n
The Japanese yen held steady at 155 per dollar after weakening over the previous two sessions ahead of the Bank of Japan’s policy decision on Friday, when markets expect rates to rise to their highest level in 31 years. <\/p>\n
British stocks rose and the pound inched 0.1% lower after a domestic inflation reading did little to alter expectations ahead of \u200cthe Bank of England’s policy decision on Thursday, with markets largely expecting rates to \u200bremain unchanged. A rate increase is still expected by year-end. <\/p>\n
“Sterling could strengthen in the coming weeks \u200bif the BoE signals hikes to come amid higher inflation and \u200benergy prices. The Japanese yen, meanwhile, could weaken if the BoJ’s message falls short of hawkish market expectations,” UBS Global Wealth \u200cManagement analysts said in a note. <\/p>\n
Central banks worldwide are weighing \u200btighter monetary policy as fuel-supply disruptions caused \u200bby the Middle East conflict stoke concerns about energy-driven inflation. <\/p>\n
Oil prices retreated on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures down 1.5% at $107.1 a barrel after rising 2.9% on Tuesday, as reports that Saudi Arabia was offering additional crude cargoes via Oman eased concern about the scale of supply \u200bdisruptions. <\/p>\n
Digital assets continued sliding after a sharp selloff in \u200cthe previous session, when the U.S. Senate voted against advancing comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation backed by Trump. <\/p>\n
Bitcoin inched up 0.1% to $75,954 after losing 4% \u200bon Tuesday, while ether was also flat at around $2,411 following a 6.3% drop in the previous session. <\/p>\n
(Reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter and \u200bShashwat Chauhan. Editing by Shri Navaratnam, Amanda Cooper, Mark Potter and Chizu Nomiyama ) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Shashwat Chauhan Sept 16 (Reuters) – Global stocks advanced on Wednesday as recent rises in government bond…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,73783,101,2800,3471,4011,171582,942],"class_list":["post-849735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-dollar-index","tag-economy","tag-federal-reserve","tag-japan","tag-oil-prices","tag-policy-decision","tag-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}