Wall Street rebounds, dollar stalls as markets digest Fed's slowdown signal

 

Wall Street rebounded and U.S. Treasury yields resumed their climb on Thursday as stocks recovered from their steep dive in the wake of the Federal Reserve's hawkish outlook.

The dollar gave back some of Wednesday's gains and gold rallied as investors grew accustomed to the reality that the central bank will take a slower, more measured approach to policy easing in the coming year.

The cautious note struck by the Fed's economic projections and the expected slowdown of rate cuts prompted the steepest U.S. stock selloff in months on Wednesday.

"People are trying to make sense of the market reaction to the Fed yesterday," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt in Atlanta. "Generally speaking, what happened at the Fed was good news; they're on the job on inflation, the economy is strong, the final GDP number of 3.1 per cent ain't bad."

 

"The market has been strong all year - very, very strong, and people are skittish," Martin added. "Valuations are high. So it was an excuse to take some money off the table or try and take some profits."

Other central banks wrapped up an eventful year of rate decisions on Thursday, with the central banks of England, Japan, Norway and Australia holding firm, with Switzerland and Canada implementing cuts of 50 basis points. Sweden's Riksbank reduced its policy rate by 25 basis points, as did the European Central Bank last week.

On the economic front, an unexpected upward revision to third-quarter U.S. GDP, a dip in jobless claims and an upside surprise in existing home sales all underscored U.S. economic strength.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 193.52 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 42,521.17, the S&P 500 rose 27.73 points, or 0.47 per cent, to 5,899.89 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 108.91 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 19,501.60.

European stocks took a dive, setting a course for their biggest percentage drop in five weeks as the Fed's hawkish signal sent investors fleeing riskier assets.

MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 2.62 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 842.82.

The STOXX 600 index fell 1.49 per cent, while Europe's broad FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 30.87 points, or 1.51 per cent.

Emerging market stocks fell 12.44 points, or 1.14 per cent, to 1,082.87. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed lower by 1.39 per cent, at 572.98, while Japan's Nikkei fell 268.13 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 38,813.58.

Yields on 10-year Treasuries jumped past 4.5 per cent to the highest level since May in the face of the U.S. central bank's more measured approach to interest rate cuts in the coming year.

The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 5.4 basis points to 4.552 per cent, from 4.498 per cent late on Wednesday.

The 30-year bond yield rose 8.2 basis points to 4.7405 per cent from 4.66 per cent late on Wednesday.

The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, fell 6.6 basis points to 4.289 per cent, from 4.355 per cent late on Wednesday.

The dollar's rally against a basket of world currencies stalled as the market digested the Fed's cooler approach to easing.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.02 per cent to 108.24, with the euro up 0.28 per cent at $1.0381.

Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 1.82 per cent to 157.61.

Bitcoin staged a minor recovery after its steep sell-off in the aftermath of Wednesday's Fed decision.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin fell 0.40 per cent to $100,523.00. Ethereum declined 2.24 per cent to $3,606.76.

Oil gained ground, supported by a reduction in U.S. inventories, but its gains were capped by the Fed's slower rate cut forecasts, which could hinder economic growth and dampen demand.

U.S. crude fell 0.26 per cent to $70.40 a barrel and Brent fell to $73.17 per barrel, down 0.3 per cent on the day.

Gold bounced back from a one-month low, rising in opposition to the weaker dollar.

Spot gold rose 0.1 per cent to $2,590.13 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 1.49 per cent to $2,597.30 an ounce.

(Reporting by Stephen Culp in New YorkAdditional reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Singapore and Alun John in LondonEditing by Matthew Lewis)