Stocks climb higher on Wednesday while the ‘store of value’ assets, Bitcoin (BTC) and gold trended lower as the minutes from the Fed minutes showed that central bank representatives were mixed on the size of the recent interest rate cut.
Fed minutes at the September meeting supported the initiation of a looser monetary policy with a significant half-point rate cut. However, there was also a broader agreement that this initial action would not commit the Fed to a specific pace for future rate cuts, as indicated in the newly released minutes from the two-day meeting.
The minutes from the September 17-18 gathering further highlighted that proponents of the half-point rate cut "noted that this adjustment in monetary policy would help better align it with recent inflation and labor market indicators."
Chinese stocks resumed their rally on Thursday, fueled by expectations that a briefing from finance officials this weekend would announce the long-anticipated fiscal stimulus. Meanwhile, the dollar hovered near a two-month high ahead of a U.S. inflation report.
Mainland shares received a boost early in the Asia session as China's central bank initiated its 500 billion yuan facility to stimulate capital markets, a measure announced in late September as part of a broader set of stimulus efforts.
China's blue-chip CSI300 index rose approximately 3%, partially recovering from the previous day's 7% drop, which stemmed from investor concerns about the lack of details in the stimulus package. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged over 4% after a 1.3% decline on Wednesday and has risen 26% this year.
Wall Street advanced on Tuesday as tech shares gained and oil prices fell, while investors assessed unrest in the Middle East. The Dow Jones rose 0.3 percent to 42,080, while the S&P 500 added 1.0 percent to 5,751. The Nasdaq jumped 1.5 percent to 18,182.
"Technology is up, and that's helping the sentiment of the market," said Peter Cardillo of Spartan Capital.
Among individual companies, Nvidia shares were up 4.1 percent while Facebook parent Meta Platforms increased 1.4 percent and Microsoft rose 1.3 percent.
On Thursday, crypto prices triggered a bearish sentiment among market observers worldwide. Bitcoin (BTC) fell back to the $60,000 level over the past day, while Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and XRP predominantly traded in negative territory. This decline coincides with significant selloffs linked to the aftermath of the PlusToken scam.
At the same time, the global crypto market cap decreased by 1.94% over the past 24 hours, bringing it down to $2.13 trillion. Additionally, the total market volume fell by 2.91% to $67.22 billion. Here’s a brief overview of some of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap and their price movements on October 10.
Gold prices fell over 1 per cent on Tuesday and were on track for their biggest drop on a percentage basis in 1-1/2 months as recent US employment data lowered expectations for a bigger rate cut, while markets awaited minutes of the US Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting for fresh signals.
Spot gold fell 1.1 per cent to $2,615.50 per ounce by 12:19 p.m. ET (1619 GMT), falling for the fifth-straight session and moving further from the Sept. 26 record peak of $2,685.42.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, markets priced out a 50-basis-point reduction at the Fed's November meeting after last week's strong jobs report. They now see an 87 per cent chance for a 25-bps cut.
Markets are focused on the minutes of the Fed's latest policy meeting, due on Wednesday, followed by US Consumer Price Index data on Thursday and Producer Price Index data on Friday.
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