International Report

On Thursday the FTSEurofirst 300 rose for the fourth consecutive day, closing up 0.7% at 1,021.66 points. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.81%, to 10,392.90. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.66%, to close at 1,106.75. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.6%, to 2,241.71. The benchmark Nikkei lost 212.11 points to close at 10,123.58. The Topix fell 1.7% to 889.08.

Last night, the US Federal Reserve hiked the rate it charges banks for emergency loans, showing a major move towards normal monetary policy. America’s central bank lifted the discount rate from 0.5% to 0.75%. After the Fed announcement Gold fell by 1% but has steadied since to close above $1105/oz. Before a government report today, economists stated that in January the cost of living in the U.S. probably increased, pushed up by higher energy prices.

Due for release today is the GBP Retail Sales m/m, CAD Core Retail Sales m/m and USD Core CPI m/m.

by Greg Secker

This entry was posted on February 19, 2010 at 11:06 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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