Stocks tick lower on mixed earnings; price of oil skids

On Wall Street, the Dow fell 0.2 per cent and the S&P 500 retreated 0.3 per cent.

Federal Reserve policymakers chose to leave interest rates unchanged after a two-day meeting, but they also said they would consider raising rates at the last meeting of 2015 if the economy keeps improving.

Asian shares fell and the dollar stood tall on Thursday, after the US Federal Reserve revived the market expectation that it might still be on track to raise interest rates by year-end. And while ultra-low rates tend to be favorable for stocks and bonds, many investors would like to see the uncertainty over interest rate policy resolved. The BOJ wraps up a policy meeting on Friday. The Fed’s hawkish tone caught a few investors off-guard. The Nasdaq composite fell six points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,024.

Japan’s benchmark index, Nikkei 225 fell 17.17 points or 0.09 percent to trade at 18,885.85. Central banks in Europe and Japan are expected to continue their own stimulus programs, keeping their rates near zero.

ENERGY: The price of USA crude oil rose $1.14, or 2.7 percent, to $44.38 a barrel in New York.

U.S. crude oil futures shrugged off the stronger dollar and extended gains after soaring more than 6% overnight as the government reported an inventory build-up, which triggered a short-covering rally after three days of losses.

Japan’s Topix index climbed 0.7 per cent after the yen weakened 0.5 percent against the dollar on Wednesday.

The New Zealand dollar, meanwhile, was down about 0.3% at $0.6675 after the country’s central bank kept interest rates steady on Thursday as expected but reiterated that a few further easing seemed likely eventually. It rose $2.24, or 4.8 per cent, to $49.05 on Wednesday.