Stocks in Asia were little changed as investors adopted a cautionary tone ahead of the FOMC event. The Shanghai index declined 0.36%. The Hang Seng stock index also moved lower by 0.03%, while the Korean KOSPI fell 0.3%. The Japanese Nikkei Index rose 0.09%.
The FOMC Day
Higher volatility is the name of the game today and day traders are likely to bank on this. The Federal Reserve will announce its monetary policy decision and the expectations are that the Fed will keep the interest rates unchanged. The element of surprise can come if the Fed increases its growth forecast and by doing only that, the dollar could soar.
Dow Index and S&P500 Index: Market Breadth
It was another up day for the stock market yesterday. The Dow Jones breadth improved largely and 70% of the Dow Jones stocks traded above their 200-day moving average yesterday.
The S&P 500 stock breadth also had a decent improvement but not as much as the Dow. 62% of the shares traded above their 200-day moving average yesterday.
Stock Market Rally
The S&P 500 stock index recorded another victory yesterday, and it advanced 0.52%. The communication sector led the index higher, and eight out of 11 sectors closed higher.
Alexion (NASDAQ:ALXN) stock contributed the biggest gain, soaring 6.31%. Carnival (NYSE:CUK) stock was the largest drag; it fell by 10.8%. The S&P 500 stock index is up 9.7% during this quarter.
The Dow index gained only 2 points yesterday, and the Dow stocks moved the index higher by 0.01%. 17 stocks of the Dow Jones Index increased in value, and 12 shares of the Dow index moved lower. Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) stock advanced higher by 3.2% and was the biggest mover for the Dow, while Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) stock dropped 3.2%, the biggest drag for Dow Jones industrial average index.
The NASDAQ composite, a tech-savvy index, rose 1.2% yesterday.