JSE set to suffer from hawkish US Fed
US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell says the bank intends to continue raising interest rates in 2019, causing Wall Street and Asia to fall
Stocks reacted badly to US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's statement on Wednesday night that he intended maintaining 2018's pace of interest-rate increases in 2019. While Powell was speaking, the Nasdaq index fell 2.17% and the S&P 500 1.54%. Asian markets took their cue from Wall Street, with Tokyo's Nikkei 225 falling 2.74%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index falling 1.13%, and Sydney's ASX 200 index falling 1.1%. Tencent, the dominant asset of the JSE all share index's largest constituent, Naspers, was down 0.2% to HK$302.40. The JSE's second largest company, BHP, was down 1.9% to A$32.86, pointing to a bad Thursday for the local bourse. The rand also suffered after the announcement that the 11 members of the US central bank's federal open market committee voted unanimously for 2018's fourth 25 basis point interest rate increase, and more in the new year are likely.
The rand moved from R14.11/$ on Wednesday before the US interest rate announcement to R14.42/$ while Powell wa...
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