Investing.com - Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, November 16:
1. Global stocks mixed, S&P in sight of record closing high
U.S. futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wednesday after the Dow racked up its seventh consecutive advance a day earlier and gains left the S&P 500 within a half percent of a record closing high. At 6:00AM ET (11:00GMT), the blue-chip Dow futures lost 0.12%, S&P 500 futures traded down 0.11% and the Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.09%.
Elsewhere, European stocks were steady to lower on Wednesday, as markets took a breather from the recent post-U.S. election rally. London’s FTSE 100 led the major indices lower despite the U.K. reporting that unemployment had hit a new 11-year low in September.
Asian shares were mixed on Wednesday with Japan’s Nikkei 225 breaking the general trend as USD/JPY continued to move higher.
2. Fed rate hike odds inch towards 100% as markets await Yellen
Market participants once again pushed the odds for the Federal Reserve (Fed) to hike rates in December past 90% on Wednesday, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Though several Fed officials have said that it was too early to interpret how future policies implemented by the newly elected President Donald Trump would affect the economy, with speculation pointing to an acceleration in inflation, many policymakers have recently hinted that the first policy tightening this year could occur in December.
Most recently, St. Louis Fed president James Bullard stated on Wednesday that “a single policy-rate increase, possibly in December, may be sufficient to move monetary policy to a neutral setting."
Meanwhile, markets looked ahead to Fed chair Janet Yellen’s testimony on the economic outlook before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee on Thursday for hints of the head of the central bank’s thoughts on the future of monetary policy.
3. Dollar attacks 14-year high
The dollar remained at an 11-month high against the other majors currencies on Wednesday, but inched towards what could be a record level not seen in 14 years, as optimism over the U.S. economy following Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president and hopes for a U.S. rate hike lent broad support to the greenback.
At 6:02AM ET (11:02GMT), the U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.17% at 100.37, the highest since December 2015.
If the index rises above the highs of 100.51 set in December 2015, it would reach its highest level since April 2003.
4. U.S. bond yields continue to rise
U.S. bond yields continued to move higher on Wednesday amid speculation the prospects for global economic growth are sufficiently strong to allow the Fed to tighten monetary policy and markets continued to bet that Trump would usher in inflationary policies.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury was hovering near intraday high of 2.278%, as the global rout in bonds continued to increase investors’ demand for a higher return on sovereign debt.
Yields move inversely to bond prices.
5. Profit-taking in oil after 6% surge, crude inventories ahead
Investors took profit in oil on Wednesday after surging 5.75% the day before, its biggest daily percentage gain in seven months.
An informal meeting of OPEC members is likely to be convened in Doha on Friday to build consensus over decisions taken by the group in September in Algiers, an Algerian energy source told Reuters, though skepticism remained as other reports pointed to the fact that neither Iran nor Iraq would attend.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on oil supplies at 10:30AM ET (15:30GMT) Wednesday, amid analyst expectations for an increase of 1.480 million barrels.
U.S. crude oil futures fell 1.05% to $45.34 at 6:03AM ET (11:03GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.79% to $46.58.