World stock indexes rose and the dollar was flat on Wednesday ahead of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision, while U.S. bond yields fell due to Treasury Department plans to increase “gradually” the size of its debt auctions.
* The Treasury Department said it will increase the size of most auctions from November to January 2024 and will need an additional quarter of increases to meet funding plans.
* With widespread expectations that the Fed will keep interest rates stable, investors will analyze the speech of the president of the entity, Jerome Powell, to determine the path of rates and how long they will remain. which is high.
* Data released on Wednesday showed a smaller-than-expected increase in US private payrolls, taking some strength from a tight labor market.
* “For now, the Fed is holding its breath,” said Niall O’Sullivan of Neuberger Berman.
* The yen recovered somewhat after the previous day’s blowout, when the Bank of Japan changed policy to control bond yields, bringing the currency to a one-year low against the dollar.
* Masato Kanda, head of Japanese monetary policy, warned again on Wednesday that authorities are ready to respond to recent “unilateral and sudden” moves in the currency, which gained 0.47% on the day to 150.96 units per dollar.
* The dollar index increased by 0.07%.
Mega-cap stocks rose between 0.5% and 1% on Wall Street, while bond yields fell. The yield on the 10-year note fell 0.4 basis points, to 4.871%.
* The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.83%, and MSCI’s measure of global shares rose 0.78%. The Nikkei gained about 2% as investors remained on red alert for a possible yen buying intervention by the authorities.
* Crude oil prices rose more than 2% ahead of the Fed’s decision as the market closely followed the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
* Data released on Wednesday showed that Asian manufacturers faced increasing pressure in October, with a fresh drop in factory activity in China dampening recovery prospects for those leading exporters in the region, which has been weighed down by the weakness of global demand and rising prices.
