Wall Street keeps gains after Fed puts off rate hike

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note slid to 1.58 percent from 1.61 percent a day earlier.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended up 0.9 percent and the STOXX 600 index rose 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England will nearly certainly keep policy on hold Thursday ahead of the June 23 Brexit referendum, but the minutes to its last meeting could show the level of concern and preparation if the vote favors breaking with the European Union. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 3.74 points, or 0.2%, to 2,075.32 and the Nasdaq composite fell 4.89 points, or 0.1%, to 4,843.55.

Bullion for immediate delivery rose as much as as 0.6 per cent to US$1,286.31 an ounce before trading at US$1,279.81 by 9:29 am Singapore time, according to Bloomberg generic pricing.

The pound dropped toward a two-month low versus the dollar as the Bank of England left policy unchanged at its final meeting before the United Kingdom votes on its membership of the European Union.

Investors have become more nervous ahead of a vote in Britain next week on whether to leave the European Union, with recent opinion polls indicating growing support for such a move.

The German 10-year bund yield fell to an all-time low of minus 0.034 percent on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve lowered its economic growth forecasts and scaled back its rate hike projections, while keeping its benchmark policy rate unchanged at a record low.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 60 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,736 as of 2:45 p.m. This happened in May, when the USA dollar strengthened amid new expectations that the Fed would raise rates in June or July.

In other energy commodities, wholesale gasoline futures dipped 2 cents to $1.50 a gallon, heating oil closed down 2 cents to $1.48 a gallon, and natural gas shed 1 cent to $2.595 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Gold prices rose 20 cents to $1,288.30 an ounce. The repercussions, however, are not clear, and investors are reacting to the general uncertainty.

“That’s a big shift and an important one – it helps the overall bond market for the Fed and the investor outlook to be as close as possible”, Jim Vogel, head of interest-rate strategy at FTN Financial in Memphis, Tennessee, said about the change in officials’ projections.

Silver XAG= fell 0.4 percent to $17.43 an ounce, platinum XPT= lost 0.1 percent to $969.67 and palladium XPD= was up 0.2 percent at $533.11. The Bank of England escalated its warnings about fallout from the vote, saying it could harm the global economy and that sterling looked increasingly likely to weaken further if “Leave” wins. Since briefly dipping below the $1,200 level at the end of last month, gold has rallied more than 8%. Brent crude, used to price global oils, fell 3 cents to $49.80 a barrel in London. Because of the volume of reader comments, we can not review individual moderation decisions with readers. The euro edged down to $1.1204 from $1.1214.