Strong US Fundamentals and Soft China Data Hit Global Stocks

Global stocks are on track for their biggest drop in two weeks while oil prices held near six-month lows on Friday as a confident U.S. central bank and weak Chinese data hit demand for risky assets.



While the decision to hold interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve was anticipated by markets, some participants had expected a more cautious approach from the central bank after a stock market rout in October.

“That the Fed indicated an optimistic view on the economy despite the turbulence in stock markets in October suggests more rate hikes are in store and that is not positive for risky assets,” said Lefteris Farmakis, a strategist at UBS in London.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

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.
Alfonso Esparza