Markets mixed, Fed policy seen as “appropriate”

Markets were mixed on Wednesday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent to a record high but the STOXX Europe 600 fell 0.3 percent and the Nikkei 225 fell 0.9 percent.

Marios Hadjikyriacos, investment analyst at XM, said that “with markets having gone on a euphoria rally lately, it might not take much bad news to trigger a notable correction”.

In a testimony before the US Congress, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said that the central bank sees “the current stance of monetary policy as likely to remain appropriate as long as incoming information about the economy remains broadly consistent with our outlook of moderate economic growth, a strong labor market, and inflation near our symmetric 2% objective”.

However, a report on Wednesday showed that US inflation was slightly higher than expected in October, as the consumer price index rose 0.4 percent.