A roundup of trading on major world markets:
NEW YORK – Wall Street is slightly higher with losses in energy shares offset by consumer discretionary gains and investors laid low ahead of a US Federal Reserve meeting.
The Fed is not expected to raise interest rates at the two-day meeting, which begins on Tuesday (US time), but investors will be on the lookout for clues about future hikes.
“If investors are inclined to make a bet, then they’re better served by waiting a few days,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago.
Global oil prices fell as much as four per cent on concerns a six-week market recovery has gone beyond fundamentals.
The recent rally in oil prices and data pointing to a strengthening US economy have helped stocks recover from a steep selloff at the start of 2016.
The S&P 500 is now down about one per cent in 2016, after having declined as much as 10.5 per cent in mid-February.
Investors are also waiting this week on the release of economic data, including US retail sales.
“There’s a lot of information,” Ablin said, “I would say information that has the potential to change outlooks.”
In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 53.25 points, or 0.31 per cent, at 17,266.56, the S&P 500 was a mere 0.05 points higher at 2,022.24 and the Nasdaq Composite had added 10.70 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 4,759.17, (at 0658 Tuesday AEDT).
LONDON – British equities have edged higher, but underperformed eurozone shares as a fall in the price of oil weighed on energy firms and counteracted a fading boost to UK-listed miners from well-received Chinese data.
Britain’s FTSE 100 index closed up 34.78 points, or 0.6 per cent at 6,174.57 points.
Assurance from a top securities regulator that China will not reintroduce a circuit breaker mechanism to stop volatility on its stock market in the next few years cheered investors, as did some aspects of generally weaker Chinese data.
Copper stabilised below four-month highs and miner and commodities firm Glencore was among the top gainers, up 4.4 per cent, although the drop in oil prices curbed gains in the sector.
The FTSE 100, which is heavily weighted in oil shares, underperformed continental indexes, and the energy sector trimmed nearly three points off the index.
Brent crude dropped nearly three per cent, below $US40 a barrel, after Iran dashed hopes of a co-ordinated production freeze any time soon.
“Iran remains intransigent on the issue of an oil output freeze … (and) suggestions that oil has found its bottom may have been a bit premature,” Connor Campbell, analyst at Spreadex, said in a note.
HONG KONG – Shares rose in Asia, adding to gains chalked up in the wake of last week’s stimulus package from the European Central Bank, as investors turned their attention to policy decisions from the Bank of Japan and Federal Reserve.
“We believe there is enough value in the sector for continued performance on central bank stimulus – with peripheral banks likely to lead the way,” said RBC Europe analyst Robert Noble.
The MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.7 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei stock index added 1.7 per cent.
The Bank of Japan began a two-day policy meeting on Monday and is expected to keep policy unchanged after adopting negative interest rates in late January.
In China, the CSI300 stocks index closed 1.6 per cent higher and the Shanghai Composite rose 1.6 per cent.
The Hang Seng lifted 1.17 per cent.
Mainland investors were encouraged by a regulator’s assurance that it was premature to consider withdrawing government bailout funds from the market, and comments that dispelled fears of a flood of initial public offerings.
WELLINGTON – The S&P/NZX 50 index climbed 51.4 points, or 0.8 per cent, to 6,566.83.
