U.S. and European stock prices moved in various directions on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve’s (FRS) decision to keep interest rates low, while oil prices rose as a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico reduced oil production.
On Wall Street, stock prices fell the most, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell to a record high in August.
The FRS promised to keep interest rates low until the maximum employment target was reached. The FRS offered a better economic forecast for this year, but a more moderate forecast for 2021 and 2022.
FRS chief Jerome Powell also stressed that the US economy needs more stimulus from Washington and noted that 11 million people are still out of work due to the new coronavirus pandemic.
Prior to the FRS announcement, the US Department of Commerce released data that US retail sales in August this year increased by 0.6% month-on-month, recording a smaller-than-expected increase. Analysts had forecast a 1% increase in retail sales in August.
The Frankfurt and Paris stock exchanges rose after the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned that the global recession caused by the pandemic would not be as deep as expected due to national efforts to limit its economic consequences.
The value of the British pound rose, causing the London Stock Exchange index to fall, after the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed confidence that his country and the EU would avoid a brunch.
Oil prices rose sharply after Hurricane Sally reduced oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 28,032.38 points on Wednesday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 0.5% to 3,385.49 points, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.3% to 11,050.47 points.
The London Stock Exchange index FTSE 100 fell 0.4% to 6078.48 points on Wednesday, the Frankfurt stock exchange index DAX 30 rose 0.3% to 13,255.37 points, while the Paris stock exchange index CAC 40 rose 0.1% to 5074 , 42 points.
In the e-commerce of the New York Stock Exchange, the price of WTI crude oil rose by 4.9% on Wednesday to USD 40.16 per barrel. The price of Brent crude rose 4.2% to $ 42.22 a barrel on the London Stock Exchange.
The euro fell against the US dollar from 1.1847 to 1.1816 dollars per euro on Wednesday, the British pound against the US dollar rose from 1.2886 to 1.2967 dollars per pound, and the US dollar against the Japanese yen fell from 105.78 to 104.92 yen per dollar. The value of the euro against the British pound rose from 90.61 to 91.10 pence per euro.
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