Asian equity markets declined on Friday following hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official. Speaking in a televised interview in the U.S. overnight, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard suggested interest rates could rise sooner rather than later, leading Wall Street shares to end in the red overnight.
“Given Janet Yellen’s last comments highlighted ‘noise’ in the inflation reading, these comments [from Bullard] have some significance. In fact, most of the Fed comments this week have been quite hawkish and perhaps this resulted in the subdued performance in equities,” said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in a note.
Also weighing on sentiment was data showing that U.S. consumer spending rose less than expected in May, which led many economists to pare back growth forecasts for the second quarter.
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.
Latest posts by marketpulsefxstaff (see all)
- Oil Remains Near Multi-Month Lows - 6 August 2015
- U.S. Dollar Higher on Recent Data - 6 August 2015
- Greece’s PM Tsipras: Loan Deal with Lenders Close - 6 August 2015