Stock market today: Asian markets wobble after Fed sticks with current interest rates
HONG KONG (AP) — Asian markets wobbled in Thursday trading after U.S. stocks swung to a mixed finish with the Federal Reserve delaying cuts to interest rates.
U.S. futures surged and oil prices were higher.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.1% to 38,236.07.
The Japanese yen surged as much as 2% in early Asia hours Thursday, driven by speculations of another round of yen-buying intervention by Japanese authorities and a weaker U.S. dollar following the Fed meeting. Later, the yen reversed its course and erased the previous gains. The dollar was trading at 155.31 yen, up from 154.91 yen.
“As expected, Japan’s Ministry of Finance, via the Bank of Japan, was back selling U.S. dollars to stabilize the yen. Indeed, the Japanese government is digging into their sizable 1.2-trillion-USD war chest, looking to take profit on the dollar they bought back in 2000,” Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, said in a commentary. He said the hope was to stabilize yen around 155-157 to the dollar.