Federal Reserve Interest-Rate Decision-Live Analysis

USA equities traded mixed on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the second time this year. US gold futures gained 0.07 percent to $1,269.50 an ounce.

Stocks in Asia were also supported by rising U.S. stocks, overnight, that snapped the two-day drop, led by technology companies. Energy and consumer-focused companies also made outsize gains.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the benchmark that professional investors follow, likewise wasn’t changed much either.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13 points, or 0.06 percent, to 21,342, with Home Depot leading advancers and Chevron lagging.

USA gold futures for August delivery rose 0.2% to $1,271.40/oz.

In lifting its benchmark lending rate by a quarter percentage point to a target range of 1.00 per cent to 1.25 per cent and forecasting one more hike this year, the Fed seemed to largely brush off a recent run of mixed economic data.

Fed officials, on the other hand, have penciled in rates at 3.0 percent.

The Fed raised rates by 25 basis points, as was widely expected, and kept is economic projections largely unchanged.

United States markets once again managed to break records again yesterday, this time the Dow Jones and S&P500 making new record closes, helped by a rebound in financials and the tech sector ahead of today’s latest Federal Reserve rate decision, though the Nasdaq100 remains well below the peaks seen last week.

USA consumer prices unexpectedly fell in May and retail sales recorded their biggest drop in 16 months, data showed on Wednesday. Trump said his program would double growth to 4 percent or better, though the administration based its first budget plan on achieving a lower but still highly ambitious goal of 3 percent annual growth.

They forecast us economic growth of 2.2 per cent in 2017, an increase from the previous projection in March.

Financial markets have been anticipating the increase. Draft regulations published by the European Union executive Commission would force any clearinghouse considered important to the European Union financial system to accept direct oversight from the bloc and, if requested, relocate to inside the EU.

Some news reports have mentioned leading candidates to fill the three vacancies on the Fed’s seven-member board.

“We don’t think the recent data call for a major change in the Fed’s policy outlook, as they have have broadly offsetting implications for the policy outlook in standard Taylor rules”. Facebook rose 1.5 percent to $150.68 while Microsoft gained 1.2 percent to $70.65.

The kiwi was trading at 56.62 British pence from 57.12 pence late yesterday after United Kingdom inflation data surprised on the high side.

Big technology names like Microsoft and Alphabet helped prop up USA stocks. WTI and Brent crude were both down 0.9% and 0.8%, at $46.04 and $48.35 a barrel respectively.

On Wednesday, the dollar index barely budged as slightly firmer moves against the euro and yen were offset by losses against the commodity bloc of currencies, such as the Australian and Canadian dollars.