U.S. Rate Hikes, Over Oil Stockpiles Shake Wall Street….and Asian Markets as Well
As the minutes of Fed’s September meeting was released on Oct. 17, indicated a potential of more rate hikes, Wall Street plunged, so as Asian markets in the next day.
On Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Dow Jones fell 91 points after the summary of the Sept. 25-26 Federal Open Market Committee session was released with tendency for more rate hikes. At one point, Dow Jones fell as much as 319.26 points, but later in the day, Dow Jones, along with S&P 500 and Nasdaq, were able to close slightly lower than the day before as investors grapple with a slew of corporate earnings releases and weakness in the housing market.
Dow Jones closed at 25,706.68 points, down 91.74 or 0.36%. S&P 500 closed at 2,809.21 points, skidded 0.71 or 0.03%. Nasdaq closed at 7,642.70 points, fell 2.79 or 0.04%.
Oil prices also fell, with U.S. futures dipping below $70 a barrel after U.S. stockpiles rose by 6.5 million barrels, almost triple than what the analysts had forecast earlier. Brent fell as much as $2.15 to $79.26/bbl. U.S. light crude oil also fell $2.17 or 3% to $69.75.
U.S. Treasury slightly rose after the minutes of Fed’s September meeting was released. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note slightly gained at 3.197% at 16:08 ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond went higher at 3.364%.
Asian Markets also took some effects from the yesterday’s plunge in the U.S. market. At 9:23 in Thailand, NIKKEI falls 114.31 points or 0.50% to 22,726.81. SSEC plunges 41.23 points or 1.61% to 2,520.38. HSI slightly falls 10.41 points or 0.04% to 25,451.85. ASX 200 downs 16.10 points or 0.27% to 5,923.00, and KOSPI falls 12.95 points or 0.60% to 2,154.56.