Wednesday’s session is underway. The equity markets across Europe are cheering the fact that the Bank of Japan rolled the dice once again. It may be a case that the announcement we saw overnight was more about tweaking the framework of stimulus rather than throwing the kitchen sink at it, but critically the action we have seen is being considered as meaningful.
Financial stocks are faring well in early trade with Barclays and Standard Chartered both at the top of the board – the fact we didn’t see any greater move into negative interest rates last night will be lending some support here.
It’s Diageo that’s propping up the table right now – their AGM is held later today, Wednesday, and a trading update ahead of this has left the market with little that’s worth cheering and the stock is being marked back accordingly, although losses are currently best described as ‘measured’.
The big news today remains that FOMC interest rate call which is due this evening – the prospect of a shift in the headline rate remains distant, but it’s going to be the tone of the accompanying narrative that will be under the greatest scrutiny. A rate hike before the year-end is still seen as being more than likely to happen but anything that reinforces this could see commodity stocks take a tumble as tomorrow’s trade gets underway.
