Fed Cuts QE3 Program, Investors Eye New Data

Yesterday, the Fed announced the decision on the reduction of the repayment of assets, by 10 billion dollars, to $65 billion dollars a month. This meant that the regulator ignored the weak statistical data that was presented, stating that the growth of economic activity was accelerated in recent quarters; indicators of the labor market had mixed character, but in general showed further improvement. Additionally, the interest rate was kept in its target range of 0%-0,25%, which coincided with the forecast.

Following the results of the trading session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down by 1.19% to the level of 15738.79 points, the index of the wide market Standard & Poor's 500 decreased by 1.02% to a level of 1774.20 points, and Nasdaq Composite went to a minus by 1.14% and reached the level of 4051.43 points.

European stock markets also came to an end in the red zone. The index of the London stock exchange, FTSE 100, fell by 0.43%, the Parisian CAC 40 fell by 0.68% and DAX fell by 0.75%.

The Asian markets, following American indices, began the day in a minus. The MSCI Asia-Pacific index lost 1.8%. Markets of South Korea and Taiwan were closed. In addition to the disappointing news, final PMI index from HSBC across China made 49.5 points, when forecasts were 50.5 points. Nikkei 225 lost 2.45%, and Shanghai Composite, 0.82%.

The Fed meeting is finally over, and now investors are going to go back to following the publications of macroeconomic statistical data. Today, the following data is going to be published on: unemployment and preliminary data on inflation in Germany; business climate, consumer confidence and consumer inflation expectation in the Eurozone; preliminary estimate of gross domestic product for the IV quarter, primary requests for unemployment benefits, and data on consumer inflation in the U.S.