Morning Briefing: Equities lower ahead of Yellen

Equities lower ahead of Yellen... Carney pushes banks to higher reserves... Japan’s PM urges spending for growth... India’s Modi defends government policy...

Steve Randall
Equities lower ahead of Yellen
Fed chair Janet Yellen will speak Tuesday and world markets are lower as nervous investors await clues as to what might be ahead. Analysts are expecting that the Fed could make one of two interest rate hikes in April. Yellen will speak at 11.30am EST.

Oil prices are also lower again as markets remain concerned over output and stockpile levels and the effectiveness of any agreement that producers make when they meet next month.

Asian markets closed mostly lower with South Korea and Hong Kong finishing with gains.

European indexes are also trending lower after initially opening higher following the Easter break.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open broadly flat ahead of Janet Yellen’s speech.
 
  Latest 1 month ago 1 year ago
 
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones 17,535.39 (+0.11 per cent) +6.17 per cent -1.00 per cent
TSX Composite 13,390.19 (+0.24 per cent) +4.12 per cent -9.60 per cent
 
Europe (at 5.30am ET)
UK FTSE 6,097.54 (-0.15 per cent) +1.41 per cent -12.78 per cent
German DAX 9,819.89 (-0.32 per cent) +5.23 per cent -17.24 per cent
 
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300 3,135.41 (-1.08 per cent) +8.96 per cent -21.06 per cent
Japan Nikkei 17,103.53 (-0.18 per cent) +6.72 per cent -11.31 per cent
 
Other Data (at 6.30am ET)
Oil (Brent) Oil (WTI) Gold Can. Dollar
39.53
(-1.84 per cent)
38.80
(-1.50 per cent)
1217.40
(- 0.22 per cent)
U$0.7593
 
Aus. Dollar
U$0.7527

Carney pushes banks to higher reserves
Bank of England governor Mark Carney is requiring UK banks and other financial institutions to hold higher levels of cash reserves. CityAM.com reports that the central bank’s Financial Policy Committee says that although British banks have improved resilience since the financial crisis, they will be faced with an increase in the countercyclical buffer rate from zero per cent to 0.5 per cent of risk-weighted assets, effective March 29, 2017.  
 
Japan’s PM urges spending for growth
Shinzo Abe wants his government to front-load its spending plans for the fiscal year in order to prompt growth in Japan’s economy. The Prime Minister spoke following parliament’s approval of a U$597.7 billion budget for the new year which begins April 1.
 
India’s Modi defends government policy
Low oil prices are not the reason for India’s growing economy. That was the message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was defending his government’s fiscal policies, which critics claim are not behind the country’s GDP growth of around 7.5 per cent.

"Many other emerging economies also depend on imported oil," Modi said. "If oil prices were the driver of success, those countries would all be showing similar results. But they are not," Mr Modi told CNN.

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