Closing post
Time to wrap up… here are today’s main stories:
European stock markets have ended the day slightly higher.
The UK’s FTSE 100 finished 10 points higher at 7929 points, up 0.13%, while Germany’s DAX gained 0.6%.
Jerome Powell may have soothed investors nerves, by insisting that the Federal Reserve hadn’t already decided to make a large hike in interest rates (see 4.15pm post).
Michael Hewson of CMC Markets says:
It was looking set to be a rather mixed day for markets in Europe, although we have seen a move into positive territory during the afternoon session on the back of Fed chairman Powell’s clarification on what the Fed is likely to do on rates in two weeks’ time.
In a manner of a parent soothing an errant child Powell merely restated that the Federal Reserve remains data-dependent and that nothing has been decided when it comes to whether we get 25bps or 50bps.
As an exercise in stating the obvious, the comments appear to have helped push markets to their highs of the day, bringing about a modest rebound into the close, however, markets still appear very much rangebound, with no clear direction, with the DAX outperforming.
