Wall Street slides despite extra-dovish Fed
The knee-jerk reaction to a more dovish outlook from the Fed was for Wall Street indices to rally, but that proved fleeting and indices closed lower yesterday. Trump said China tariffs will stay until a trade deal is in place. Australia’s unemployment rate drops to a near-eight year low.
US30USD Daily Chart
The US30 index closed lower for a second straight day yesterday as the Fed said there were no plans for further rate hikes this year and that its balance sheet run-off would end in September
The 55-day moving average at 25,153 is about to cross above the 200-day moving average at 25,160, having moved above the 100-day moving average on March 13
Having downgraded its growth, unemployment and inflation forecasts, the Fed sees no need to move rates to what it called a “restrictive” level. The “dot plot” last December had looked for two rates hikes this year.
DE30EUR Daily Chart
The Germany30 index fell the most since February 7 yesterday on disappointing corporate results/announcements and early weakness on Wall Street
The index failed to close above the 200-day moving average at 11,773. Rising trendline support has shifted to near 11,455
EU leaders start a two-day summit. EU says it will not ask UK for a 2nd Brexit referendum but have yet to receive PM May’s Brexit letter or received a request for any extension of Article 50.
AU200AUD Daily Chart
The Australia200 index is edging lower this morning amid a drop in the unemployment rate but with a smaller number of jobs added in February
The 55-day moving average at 6,024 is above the 200-day moving average at 6,020 for the first time since November 7
Australia’s unemployment rate hit 4.9% in February, below forecasts and the lowest since May 2011. The economy added a net 4.6k jobs in the month but lost 7.3k full-time ones.
