Meanwhile investors were cheering the Fed’s decision to stick with projections for three rate cuts this year. Rates were held steady, as expected, though price pressures persist.
Wall Street stock indexes strode to record highs, gold prices spiked to a record in early Asia trade and equity benchmarks in Tokyo and Taipei made record peaks.
The yen bounced and blowout job numbers in Australia rallied the Aussie.
Beneath the hood of the Fed’s projections, National Australia Bank’s Taylor Nugent noted long-term rate expectations are creeping higher. The median long-term rate projection nudged from 2.5% to 2.6%. But there are now seven policymakers with a long-run projection of 3% or above, up from four in December.
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