Markets up as Fed leaves rates unchanged

Markets were mostly up on Wednesday.

The STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.9 percent and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.6 percent.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 percent but the S&P 500 was flat.

Wednesday also saw the Federal Reserve decide to keep interest rates unchanged at its monetary policy meeting. In its statement following the meeting, the Fed said that “measures of consumer and business sentiment have improved of late” but business investment remains “soft”.

Sue Chang at MarketWatch noted that the “January trifecta” consisting of the so-called Santa Claus rally, the market’s direction in the first five days of January, and the January Barometer were all higher, suggesting that “2017 will likely be another gratifying year for investors”.

However, Anora Mahmudova at MarketWatch pointed out that US stocks are very expensive and volatility is very low.

“Volatility is the most mean-reverting index,” said Charlie Bilello, director of research at Pension Partners LLC. “Stocks can certainly get more overvalued, but the risk/reward is clearly tilting more towards the risk side,” said Bilello.