Yahoo Finance Wall Street mixed as investors wait on Powell for clues, FTSE closes higher
A look at how the markets are performing this Thursday
The FTSE 100 and European stocks were higher as investors got another hint that the Bank of England will is done with raising interest rates. Investors are also waiting for remarks from US Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell.
The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) bounced back and rose 0.73% to close at 7,455 points, while the CAC 40 (^FCHI) in Paris climbed 1.11% to 7,112 points. In Germany, the DAX (^GDAXI) gained 0.72% to 15,339. The Stoxx 600 (STOXX) advanced 0.84%, after touching a three-week high intraday in the prior session.
Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill has suggested that holding interest rates at their current level will be enough to bring down inflation to the 2% target within two years.
Read more: Interest rates – No more rises needed to tackle inflation, says BoE chief economist
Across the pond, Wall Street stocks were higher on Thursday, as investors kept an eye on Federal Reserve policymakers for more clues to interest-rate strategy.
The Dow Jones (^DJI) hovered just above the flat line at 34,115 points. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.10% to 4,385 points and the tech-heavy NASDAQ (^IXIC) climbed about 0.1% to 13,653 points.
The S&P 500 is heading towards its ninth straight day of gains. It's the most consecutive straight days of gains since November 2021.
Investors await Powell's remarks at 19h00 GMT after he refrained from commenting on monetary policy on Wednesday.
Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker told a conference in Evanston, Illinois, that he felt holding interest rates at their current, restrictive, level was the right course of action.
"A decrease in the policy rate is not something that is likely to happen in the short term,” he said.
In Asia, the Hang Seng (^HSI) in Hong Kong lost 0.29% to 17,518 while the Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) finished flat at 3,053 points. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 (^N225) finished higher, rising 1.49% to 32,646 points.
China slipped back into deflation in October, official figures showed, as falling pork prices delivered a blow to the world’s second largest economy.
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Government data showed October consumer prices shrank 0.2% year-on-year in China, more than the 0.1% fall expected by economists polled by Reuters. Producer prices declined 2.6%, slightly smaller than the expected decline of 2.7%.
The drop in China’s CPI was partly due to cheaper food prices – pork, for example, cost 30% less than a year ago, with an oversupply of pigs and weak demand making this popular staple cheaper.
Meanwhile, Brent crude recovered slightly after falling more than 4% on Tuesday to levels not seen since July as China’s exports dropped for a sixth straight month, underscoring a slowdown in global demand.
West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) is trading at $75.84 per barrel. Brent (BZ=F) crude futures rose 0.73% to $80.12 per barrel.
Watch: Markets in 3 Minutes: Powell Only Has Tactical Relevance Today
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