The ASX200 is likely to make some strong strides in early morning trading today, with ASX Futures pointing to a full 1.1% or 79-point lift in trading.
The US Fed held interest rates in their latest decision, signalling the rate-hiking cycle may be at an end over the pond and giving markets some wind in their sails.
This optimism was buoyed by a survey of Fed officials, in which 17 of 19 projected that the policy rate would be lower by the end of 2024 than it is now, giving stock to theories that global inflation may finally be coming under control.
US and European markets
According to Commsec, US markets performed strongly overnight, especially the S&P500, where all index sectors were higher.
The gains were led by real estate and utilities, which rose between 3.6% and 3.7% respectively.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX) surged 13.2% following the success of their nerve-pain treatment in a mid-stage trial. Walgreen Boots Alliance enjoyed a 7.4% jump, while financial institutions Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) gained between 2.8% and 4.2%.
On the other side of the ledger, Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) floundered, shedding 6.7% as its shares hit their lowest in 10 years on the back of a poor revenue forecast for 2024, which fell short of market expectations.
The Dow gained 512 points or 1.4%, a record closing high. The Nasdaq gained 1.4% or 200.5 points and the S&P500 rose 1.4% as well.
European stock markets showed little change on Wednesday as investors awaited decisions from central banks.
Chemical sector stocks led the advance, up by 1.2%. They were bolstered by gains in BASF and Arkema (OTC:ARKAY), which climbed 4.4% and 5.5% following an upgrade in their ratings by UBS.
Telecoms stocks dropped, falling by 1.4%, with Vodafone (LON:VOD)'s shares dropping 2.9%. The FTSEurofirst 300 index didn’t experience any real movement either way.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 index saw a marginal rise of 0.1%. This modest gain occurred amidst news that the British economy contracted in October, with the gross domestic product (GDP) decreasing by 0.3% from September, a sharper decline than the 0.1% predicted in surveys.
Currencies and commodities
The US dollar fell in overnight trading, with the Euro, Aussie dollar and Japanese yen all climbing. The Euro moved from US$1.0772 to a high of US$1.0895 and settled near US$1.0875 at the US market close.
The Aussie climbed from US65.41 cents to US66.72 cents and was around US66.65 cents by the end of the US session while the yen strengthened from 145.96 yen per US dollar to JPY142.71 and was about JPY143.05 at the US close.
Global oil prices rose by 1% on Wednesday, on larger than expected weekly drawdown from US crude storage.
Energy firms withdrew 4.3 million barrels of crude last week, far exceeding the 700,000-barrel withdrawal anticipated by analysts.
Consequently, the Brent crude price advanced by US$1.02 or 1.4%, reaching US$74.26 a barrel, while the US Nymex crude price increased by US86 cents or 1.3% to $69.47 a barrel.
Base metal prices showed mixed results. Copper futures remained steady, while aluminium futures rose by 1%.
The gold futures price edged up by US$4.10 or 0.2% to US$1,997.30 an ounce, with spot gold trading around US$2,024 an ounce at the US close.
Iron ore futures, however, declined by US63 cents or 0.5% to US$135.03 a tonne. This drop followed the conclusion of a key policy meeting in China, which ended without announcing any major new stimulus measures.
On the small cap front
The Small Ordinaries gained 0.5 points overnight, scraping a 0.02% lift compared to the ASX’s more robust 22.5-point or 0.31% lift.
You can read about the following and more throughout the day.