Global markets: US stocks rise ahead of Fed monetary policy decision
US stock indices edged higher on Wednesday ahead of the year’s last Federal Reserve monetary policy decision.
The Fed is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged.
ALSO READ: US Fed Meeting Live Updates
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.33 points, or 0.04%, to 36,591.27. The S&P 500 gained 10.41 points, or 0.22%, to 4,654.11. The Nasdaq Composite added 49.36 points, or 0.34%, to 14,582.76.
A report showed that US producer-price inflation eased in November as energy costs fell.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) for final demand was unchanged from a month earlier.
The core PPI, excluding food and energy, was also flat.
From a year ago, the PPI was up 0.9%, while the core gauge was up 2%.
On Tuesday, the US stocks closed at new highs of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 173.01 points, or 0.48%, to 36,577.94. The S&P 500 gained 21.26 points, or 0.46%, to 4,643.70. The Nasdaq Composite gained 100.91 points, or 0.70%, to 14,533.40.
In Europe, stocks rose with the STOXX 600 benchmark rising 0.2%.
Germany’s DAX gained 0.2% and France’s CAC 40 was up 0.3%. Britain’s FTSE 100 added 0.3%.
Investors are awaiting policy decisions from the European Central Bank (ECB), the Bank of England (BoE), Norway’s Norges Bank and the Swiss National Bank on Thursday.
Asian stock markets fell on Wednesday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 0.9% at 16,228.75. China’s Shanghai Composite dropped 1.2% at 2,968.76.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3% at 32,926.35.
Oil prices on Wednesday edged higher amid worries about oversupply and waning demand. Brent crude futures for February were up 30 cents, or 0.41%, at $73.54 a barrel at 1256 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures for January gained 32 cents, or 0.47%, to $68.93 a barrel.
On Tuesday, Brent futures closed at their lowest since late June at $73.24 a barrel, incurring a $2.79 a barrel day-on-day loss.
Gold fell to a more-than-three-week low of $1,972.7 an ounce on Wednesday.
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Published: 13 Dec 2023, 08:43 PM IST
