US markets closed lower after Fed's release of latest meeting minutes

06 Apr 2017 Evaluate

The US markets closed lower on Wednesday, suffering a late selloff after minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting showed policy makers plan to begin unwinding the central bank’s gigantic balance sheet before the end of the year. Markets appeared to shrug off geopolitical news coming from North Korea, which launched another intermediate-range missile, and a chemical attack in Syria that left hundreds dead. The two-day summit between Trump and China’s President Xi was still in focus for investors, who are looking for clues on ramifications for trade and the dollar.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve released minutes from its March meeting, noting that most Federal Reserve policymakers think the central bank should take steps to begin trimming its $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year as long as the economic data holds up. The minutes released of the March 14-15 policy discussion, at which the Fed voted 9-1 to raise interest rates, also showed that the rate-setting committee had a broad discussion about whether to phase out or halt reinvestments all at once. In the minutes, almost all policymakers agreed that the timing of a change in balance sheet policy would depend on economic and financial conditions and generally preferred to taper or stop investments in both Treasury and mortgage-backed bonds. Several participants now anticipated that meaningful fiscal stimulus would likely not begin until 2018. A number of participants noted that core inflation was a useful indicator of future headline inflation, and the latest reading on 12-month core inflation suggested that it could still be some time before headline inflation reached 2 percent on a sustained basis. Moreover, several participants remarked that even though inflation was currently not that far below the Committee’s 2 percent objective, it was important for the Committee to remove accommodation gradually to help ensure that inflation would stabilize around that objective over the medium term.

On the economy front, private-sector employment continued at a torrid pace in March, registering the second-strongest reading in more than two years. Employers added 263,000 private sector jobs last month, up from a revised 245,000 in February. The increase in March exceeded expectations. However, a survey of service-oriented companies that employ most Americans showed steady if somewhat slower growth in the US economy in March, but growing uncertainty about new government policies in Washington gnawed at some executives. The Institute for Supply Management said its nonmanufacturing index fell 2.4 points to 55.2% in March, marking the lowest level since the election of President Donald Trump in November.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 41.09 points or 0.20 percent to 20,648.15, the Nasdaq was down 34.13 points or 0.58 percent to 5,864.48, while S&P 500 dropped 7.21 points or 0.31 percent to 2,352.95.

The Indian ADRs closed mostly in red; Infosys was down 0.08%, Wipro was down 0.07% and ICICI Bank was down 0.02%. On the other hand, HDFC Bank was up 0.19% and Dr. Reddy’s Lab was up 0.04%.

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