Thursday 12 October 2017

US stocks rise to another record high but Europe flat despite secession reprieve in Spain

Markets were mostly higher on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent to close at a record high while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.3 percent to close at a two-decade high.

However, the STOXX Europe 600 was flat despite a 1.3 percent jump in the IBEX 35 after Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont told the Catalan parliament that he was suspending the secession process to negotiate with the Spanish government first.

In the US, investors may have been encouraged by the minutes of the Federal Reserve's last monetary policy meeting released on Wednesday. The minutes showed that several Fed officials thought that inflation may take longer than previously expected to get back to the central bank's target.

Indeed, Yardeni Research's Edward Yardeni thinks that there is now a 55 percent chance the market will continue climbing, up from his estimate of 50 percent about two months ago.

No comments:

Post a Comment