Equities mostly fell Thursday as fears a fresh wave of virus infections could push the global recovery off track erased early gains fuelled by a Federal Reserve pledge to provide as much support as necessary to the US economy.
While the central bank did not unveil any new measures and broadly met expectations, analysts said it instilled some much-needed confidence that the Fed had their back.
Bank boss Jerome Powell said the Fed had noted the spike in new US cases was denting economic activity and warned the downturn was “the most severe of our lifetimes”, while adding recovery depended on staunching the virus so Americans could go out and spend again.
The policy board repeated its intention to hold rates near zero “until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goals”.
Observers said focus now turns to the next policy meeting in September, which could see more measures unveiled.
Wall Street’s three main indexes saw healthy gains which were followed by Asia in the morning, but the advance fizzled as the day wore on.
Hong Kong ended down 0.7 percent, Tokyo 0.3 percent and Shanghai 0.2 percent, while Singapore shed more than two percent — owing to a sharp drop in banks after the country’s regulator called on them to cap dividend payments.
London dropped 0.8 percent in the morning and Paris 0.5 percent, while Frankfurt sank more than one percent after data showed Germany’s economy shrank a record 10.1 percent in the second quarter.
Manila, Mumbai and Bangkok were also down, but there were gains in Sydney, Seoul, Taipei, Jakarta and Wellington.
– Washington struggles –
“It wasn’t exactly the most riveting (policy meeting) of recent times after the Fed let the cat out of the bag late Tuesday pledging to extend its emergency programmes,” said Stephen Innes at AxiCorp.
But the meeting “still managed to dot I’s and cross the T’s and out-dove even the market’s most dovish expectations”, he added.
But, while traders have a mountain of cash from governments and central banks around the world backing them up, the disease continues to dominate as the US death toll topped 150,000 and Australia’s state of Victoria noted a record number of new infections.
The grim readings highlight the overriding need for a vaccine.
There is also worry Powell’s calls for more government aid to help the economy might not be heeded by US lawmakers, who remain poles apart as they try to hammer out a new stimulus.
Republicans are divided over their own $1 trillion proposal, while Democrats — whose plan is three times bigger — have resisted moves for a piecemeal package suggested by President Donald Trump.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said the two sides were “nowhere close to a deal”.
The prospect of US interest rates being kept at zero for an extended amount of time put further pressure on the dollar. It hit a two-year low against the euro, but managed to claw back slightly in Asian business.
Analysts, however, say it could face further selling later in the day if US economic growth comes in worse than the 35 percent contraction forecast for the second quarter. The weaker greenback could push gold to test the $2,000 mark.
– Key figures around 0810 GMT –
Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.3 percent at 22,339.23 (close)
Hong Kong – Hang Seng: DOWN 0.7 percent at 24,710.59 (close)
Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.2 percent at 3,286.82 (close)
London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.8 percent at 6,081.40
Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1762 from $1.1794 at 2100 GMT
Dollar/yen: UP at 105.04 yen from 104.93 yen
Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2985 from $1.2993
Euro/pound: DOWN at 90.57 pence from 90.76 pence
West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.0 percent at $40.85 per barrel
Brent North Sea crude: DOWN 0.8 percent at $43.41 per barrel
New York – Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 26,539.57 (close)
