Morning Briefing: Focus on Fed, ECB

Focus on Fed, ECB... Yahoo, Facebook status update...

Steve Randall
Focus on Fed, ECB
Markets are focused on two of the world’s largest central banks Wednesday. Fed chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to speak at the Economic Club of Washington at 12.30pm EST and her words will be scrutinized closely ahead of the Fed’s monetary policy meeting mid-December.

Meanwhile investors and analysts are also expecting the European Central Bank to react to current economic conditions in the bloc when it meets Thursday. New figures show continued weakness in the Eurozone’s inflation.

Asian markets closed mixed with Shanghai gaining on speculation that the Chinese government could be about to boost the flagging property market. Tokyo close lower along with Sydney, despite new figures showing the Australian economy grew by 2.5 per cent in the third quarter; up from 1.9 per cent a year earlier and exceeding expectations of 2.4 per cent.

European indexes are higher so far Wednesday while New York and Toronto are expected to open higher. Wall Street will be watching the Fed’s Beige Book at 2pm as well as Ms. Yellen’s speech.
 
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North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones 17,719.92 (+0.95 per cent) +0.33 per cent -0.05 per cent
TSX Composite 13,636.06 (+1.23 per cent) +0.10 per cent -6.73 per cent
 
Europe (at 6.00am ET)
UK FTSE 6,424.24 (+0.45 per cent) +0.98 per cent - 4.71 per cent
German DAX 11,302.20 (+0.36 per cent) +3.17 per cent +14.06 per cent
 
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300 3,721.96 (+3.63 per cent) +7.08 per cent +27.29 per cent
Japan Nikkei 19,938.13 (-0.37 per cent) +6.72 per cent +12.88 per cent
 
Other Data (at 6.00am ET)
Oil (Brent) Oil (WTI) Gold Can. Dollar
43.82
(-1.40 per cent)
41.33
(-1.24 per cent)
1066.10
(+0.24 per cent)
U$0.7480
 
Aus. Dollar
U$0.7330

Yahoo, Facebook status update
Two of the world’s biggest online firms are in the headlines Wednesday. Yahoo shares up gaining following a report that the firm may be seeking a buyer for its flagging business. Meanwhile Facebook’s mark Zuckerberg has written an open letter to his new daughter pledging to give away 99 per cent of his stock in the firm in order to fund charitable projects during his life and that of his wife Chan.
 

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