Investing.com - Here are the top five things you need to know in financial markets on Wednesday, February 22:
1. Fed minutes in focus
The Federal Reserve will release minutes of its most recent policy meeting on Wednesday at 2:00PM ET (19:00GMT).
The U.S. central bank held interest rates steady following its meeting on February 1 and painted a relatively upbeat picture of the economy, although it gave no firm signal on the timing of its next rate move.
Fed chair Janet Yellen raised market expectations for a near-term rate hike last week after saying it would be “unwise” to keep interest rates lower for longer.
Still, markets place only a 22% chance of a hike at the March 14-15 meeting, according to Investing.com’s Fed Rate Monitor Tool.
Also on the economic calendar for Wednesday, investors will have more input from the central bank as Fed governor Jerome Powell gives his outlook on the economy and monetary policy at the Forecaster's Club of New York, while they will eye housing data with the existing home sales for January.
On the company front, eyes will focus on Tesla’s earnings after the market close.
2. Global stocks follow Wall Street’s lead to record highs
Global stocks extended record highs on Wednesday as markets from China to London followed Wall Street’s rally, with the major American indices marking yet again all-time closing highs.
European stocks moved higher on Wednesday, buoyed by positive sentiment in global equities, as German business confidence improved in February, beating expectations.
Earlier, Asian equities closed mostly higher, though Japanese stocks broke the trend as the dollar slumped against the yen.
U.S. stock futures however pointed to equities taking a break as they registered small losses. At 5:57AM ET (10:57GMT), the blue-chip Dow futures lost 0.27%, S&P 500 futures traded down 0.28% and the Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.25%.
3. Oil holds near 7-week highs
Oil prices slipped lower on Wednesday, but remained near seven-week highs amid optimism that OPEC and its allies have been following through on their commitment to cut production.
Investors were also looking ahead to a reading on U.S. crude stockpiles from the American Petroleum Institute (API) out later on Wednesday.
The Energy Information Administration will release official data on crude inventories on Thursday with expectations for a build of 3.325 million barrels.
Both reports are released one day later than normal due to Monday’s holiday.
U.S. crude oil futures fell 0.59% to $54.01 at 5:86AM ET (10:58GMT), while Brent oil traded down 0.64% to $56.30.
4. Dollar slumps against yen
Even though the dollar registered small gains against of basket of six major currencies, it weakened against the yen as Bank of Japan (BoJ) governor Haruhiko Kuroda said Wednesday that further monetary policy easing was unlikely.
"With economic growth accelerating, however, the chance of deepening negative rates is low," he told the country’s parliament.
USD/JPY was down 0.55% at 113.04 by 5:58AM GMT (10:58GMT), just off intraday lows of 112.97.
5. Euro fights to hold $1.05 amid political uncertainty
The euro fell briefly below $1.05 for the first time in six weeks on Wednesday, hit by a combination of concern over France's presidential election campaign and growing expectations for a rise in U.S. interest rates.
Concern that anti-EU candidate Marine Le Pen could win in May and deliver a fatal blow to the euro project as her popularity has continued to rise this week, shaking faith that she would lose in the second round of voting.
At 5:59AM GMT (10:59GMT), EUR/USD last fell 0.32% at $1.0503, after having hit an intraday low at 1.0494.