Stocks drop with dollar, Treasurys rise after Fed
U.S. stocks and the dollar fell as investors assessed the Federal Reserve's views on the economy. Treasurys rallied.
The S&P 500 ended the session lower after getting whipsawed as Chairman Jerome Powell suggested the pandemic could inflict permanent damage on the economy even as the Fed signaled it would keep rates near zero possibly for years to come. The Treasury curve steepened sharply after the central bank said it will at least maintain the current rate of bond purchases.
"It seems like profit-taking is underway after the Fed didn't deliver any new measures," said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. "It's not as easy to take risk at this point."
U.S. equities have rallied more than 40% from their March lows as central-bank asset purchases and unprecedented stimulus sparked demand for risk assets. Earlier Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the U.S. "definitely" needs additional fiscal stimulus.
Stocks may be the ultimate beneficiary of trillions of dollars in economic stimulus from the Fed, according to Savita Subramanian, Bank of America Corp.'s chief U.S. equity strategist. "Liquidity looking for a home" is bolstering the FANG stocks -- Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google's owner, Alphabet Inc. -- along with their technology-driven peers, she wrote in a report this week.
The danger, though, is that any complication in the economic recovery could see market gains swiftly reverse -- at a time when there's less room for additional support. The pandemic is splintering the world economy, and policymakers can't risk a premature withdrawal of lifelines to businesses and the most vulnerable people, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development warned.
These are some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
- The S&P 500 decreased 0.5% as of 4 p.m. EDT.
- The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.4%.
- The MSCI Asia Pacific Index increased 0.6%.
Currencies
- The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.6%.
- The euro advanced 0.4% to $1.1388.
- The Japanese yen appreciated 0.6% to 107.14 per dollar.
Bonds
- The yield on 10-year Treasurys dipped 10 basis points to 0.73%.
- Germany's 10-year yield fell two basis points to -0.33%.
- Britain's 10-year yield dipped seven basis points to 0.267%.
Commodities
- The Bloomberg Commodity Index increased 0.4%.
- West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 0.3% to $39.05 a barrel.
- Gold gained 1.5% to $1,747.80 an ounce.
