The fallout from yesterday’s Federal Reserve statement continued to reverberate through global markets, with the dollar extending declines, emerging-nation currencies getting a boost and gold gaining on optimism the central bank will take a cautious approach to raising interest rates.
The dollar extended losses, weakening against all but two of its 16 major peers, as bets on a rate increase in 2016 remained below 50 percent. South Korea’s won climbed to the highest since October and gold rose for a third day. Ford Motor Co. led shares of carmakers lower after warning that a stalling U.S. market was putting profit targets at risk, while Facebook Inc. rallied after reporting a 59 percent jump in sales. Banks led declines in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index after Lloyds Banking Group Plc warned Britain’s vote to leave the European Union may hurt earnings and dividends.
Positive corporate earnings and signs central banks will step in to support economic growth have helped lift global equities to their biggest monthly gain since March. While admitting risks to the U.S. economy had subsided, the Fed left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday as policy makers assessed the fallout from Brexit.
“The Fed comments were less hawkish than expected,” said Benno Galliker, a trader at Swiss Luzerner Kantonalbank AG. “There will be a hike this year, but later than in September. The stock market still has some room to go for the next few weeks.”
Chair Janet Yellen has repeatedly stated that the Fed is likely to raise borrowing costs gradually, though market volatility and an unexpected dip in job gains have delayed such plans. In Japan, traders are looking ahead to Friday’s monetary policy review, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a fiscal-stimulus package exceeding 28 trillion yen ($267 billion) on Wednesday in a bid to jump-start the economy.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, a gauge of the greenback against 10 major peers, lost 0.3 percent as of 9:50 a.m. in New York. Against the euro, the U.S. currency was headed for its biggest two-day slide since June 23, the day of the U.K. referendum on its membership of the European Union.
South Korea’s won jumped 0.9 percent and Malaysia’s ringgit gained 0.8 percent.
“We’re seeing broad dollar weakness,” said Yuji Kameoka, the chief foreign exchange strategist at Daiwa Securities Co. in Tokyo. “Even though the Fed did note some improvements in the economy, a rate hike in September still isn’t certain.”
The yen climbed 0.5 percent to 104.92 per dollar after dropping 0.7 percent on Wednesday. A majority of economists polled by Bloomberg predict Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda will boost asset purchases on Friday and lower the already negative key rate.
The pound slipped against all of its 16 major counterparts with swaps trading indicating that the Bank of England is certain to cut its key interest rate rate next week. Sterling dropped 0.5 percent to $1.3154.
