Morning Briefing: Markets gain on Fed rate hold

Markets gain on Fed rate hold... More stimulus for the Eurozone? One policymaker thinks so... China has more billionaires than US...

Steve Randall
Markets gain on Fed rate hold
Weak data from the US Wednesday has boosted market expectations that the Fed will not be increasing interest rates this year. With American retail sales stagnant and producer prices declining analysts are predicting that it may be next year before any change in interest rates.

Asian markets have closed generally higher with commodity prices becoming more stable and some positive regional earnings.

European markets have followed suit with all major indexes trending higher so far. The EU president meets with the British prime minister Thursday to discuss the UK’s membership of the union.

Bank earnings including Goldman Sachs are in focus on Wall Street which, along with the TSX, is expected to open higher.
 
  Latest 1 month ago 1 year ago
 
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones 16,924.75 (-0.92 per cent) +1.96 per cent +4.85 per cent
TSX Composite 13,875.33 (+0.22 per cent) +3.06 per cent +0.04 per cent
 
Europe (at 6.00am ET)
UK FTSE 6,325.33 (+0.89 per cent) +3.06 per cent +1.83 per cent
German DAX 10,043.25 (+1.28 per cent) -1.42 per cent +17.16 per cent
 
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300 3,486.82 (+2.37 per cent) +10.61 per cent +41.52 per cent
Japan Nikkei 18,096.90 (+1.15 per cent) +0.39 per cent +20.06 per cent
 
Other Data (at 6.00am ET)
Oil (Brent) Oil (WTI) Gold Can. Dollar
48.87
(-0.57 per cent)
46.01
(-1.35 per cent)
1184.70
(+0.42 per cent)
U$0.7755
 
Aus. Dollar
U$0.7342
 
More stimulus for the Eurozone? One policymaker thinks so
Eurozone inflation targets have been missed and there is still weakness in the bloc which is fuelling speculation of additional stimulus from the European Central Bank. Bloomberg reports that ECB policymaker Ewald Nowotny has hinted that the central bank may be more concerned than before about the economic outlook and his comments have suggested that there could be further action taken when the bank meets next week. Nowotny is chief of Austria’s central bank and speaking in Poland Thursday he said that “structural measures” may be needed to turn the economy around.
 
China has more billionaires than US
China has more billionaires than the US for the first time according to the Hurun Report. China has 596 billionaires, with 242 of them reaching the milestone in 2014; the US has 537. 
 

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