Even though Federal Reserve officials are refusing to fully rule out another interest rate hike in the cycle, San Francisco Fed chief Mary Daly described the latest inflation picture as ‘very, very encouraging.”
Futures markets are even more encouraged and have taken another hike completely off the table – and now put about an 80% chance of a rate cut by May. And after consolidating Tuesday’s plunge on Wednesday, Treasury yields have resumed their decline.
Many Fed officials have pointed to housing as a key focus and the November NAHB index of housing market sentiment out later will be watched closely alongside industrial readings for last month.
The S&P500 hit its highest in more than two months on Wednesday and stock futures held the line ahead of the bell.
The mood was helped on confirmation a government shutdown this week was finally averted in the U.S. Senate.
The picture in overseas markets, where the economic picture is cloudier, was more mixed.
Chinese stocks fell again as investors were disappointed by a meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies and the property bust there smoldered.
China’s new home prices fell for the fourth month in October as government support measures did little to lift the gloom hanging over the debt-laden property sector.
There was a flat response to the long-awaited meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco on Wednesday and concerns it did not deliver more, despite some signs of detente between the two leaders.
Xi also told Biden that Taiwan was the biggest, most dangerous issue in U.S.-China ties, a senior U.S. official told reporters, while Biden responded by assuring Xi that Washington was determined to maintain peace in the region.
Elsewhere, Japanese exports grew for a second straight month in October but at a sharply slower pace due to slumping China-bound shipments of chips and steel.
