The Fed Has Strengthened the Dollar

The Fed, as expected, kept the range of the key interest rate at the previous level of 1.00-1.25%. The regulator plans to begin reducing the volume of government securities on the balance sheet in October this year. At the moment, the volume of assets is $4.5 trillion. According to the plan of the Central Bank, the initial reduction is planned at $10 billion per month. The volume will increase quarterly. The maximum amount is $50 billion per month. The Fed also published quite optimistic economic forecasts. The growth of the US economy this year has been revised from 2.2% to 2.4%. These events caused a significant demand for the American currency. The probability of an increase in the key interest rate in December 2017 increased to 65.8%.

Today, the two-day meeting of the Bank of Japan ended in the Asian trading session. The central bank kept the key interest rate at the previous level of -0.1% as expected.

Yesterday aggressive purchases were observed in the “black gold” market. Futures for the WTI crude oil rose by more than 2%. At the moment, prices are stable. The oil quotes are testing a mark of $50.5 per barrel.

Market Indicators

Major US stock indices showed a variety of trends: #SPY (+0.04%), #DIA (+0.14%), #QQQ (-0.31%).

At the moment, the 10-year US government bonds yield is at the level of 2.27-2.28%.

At 16:30 (GMT+3:00) the head of ECB Draghi will give a speech.