Investors are shifting their focus to the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest meeting
Wall Street stocks finished mixed overnight amid some profit-taking after the indexes notched fresh record highs in the previous session. The benchmarks were also somehow pressured by a weaker-than-expected economic report out of the United States. The ISM manufacturing PMI came in at 58.7, a decrease from 61.1 in the previous month. On the positive side, the employment index arrived at 54.2 versus 53.5 expected. At the close of trade, the S&P500 was down less than 0.1%, the Dow Jones gained 0.59%, and the Nasdaq declined 1.33%.
Asian stock markets were mostly lower on Wednesday, with technology shares leading the losses in the region. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific stocks outside Japan lost 0.8%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.1%. Now, investors are shifting their focus to the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest meeting that could somehow affect investor sentiment later in the day.
In Europe, equities opened little changed on Wednesday and were last seen trading in a mixed manner, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 index struggling for direction in early deals. US stock index futures were flat in early pre-market trading. On the data front, Eurozone’s December final services PMI arrived at 53.1 versus the 53.3 preliminary estimate.
Meanwhile, the USD index peaked just below the 96.50 area before retreating to the 96.25 zone. Today, the index turned slightly negative but still holds above the 96.00 figure ahead of the ADP employment report and the FOMC meeting minutes due later in the day. EURUSD bounced marginally on Wednesday, treading water around the 1.1300 figure during the European hours.
