US Fed Minutes Hint At Unlikely Rate Hike Before Spring

January 8, 2015 Share Print 0

Other good news for investors in Asia came from Europe.

The latest eurozone inflation figures showed inflation turned negative in December, with prices down 0.2% from a year earlier, but the data means the European Central Bank may be forced to try fresh stimulus measures to kick-start the economy.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index finished up 0.7%, while Shanghai Composite bucked the regional trend to close down 2.4%.

Du Changchun, analyst at Northeast Securities in Shanghai, said profit-taking was one factor behind the Shanghai market fall on Thursday.

“Furthermore, the momentum for blue-chips seems to have weakened because of shrinking turnovers,” he said.

Investors welcomed news from Hong Kong listed bank Standard Chartered after the British lender said it would shut its equities business and cut jobs in an ongoing effort to cut costs and boost profits. Its shares were up 2.8%.

Australia’s share market, the S&P/ASX 200, finished the day up 0.52%.

In South Korea, the benchmark Kospi was up 1.11% in line with the majority of regional indexes.

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse

Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.