FOMC

The FOMC released its interest rate and policy decision statement today alongside updated economic forecasts creating little news. In fact, the only real news was in the forecasts as they changed slightly, but the FOMC reiterated its stance to continue easing so long as the employment market...

Futures Lower on Weak European Manufacturing Data U.S. equity futures fell in pre-market trading following weak Eurozone Manufacturing PMIs. The Eurozone Manufacturing PMI for February fell to 47.8 from 47.9 in January, worse than forecasts of a reading of 48.5, with weakness in France and Germany...

Futures Flat Despite Italian Weakness, Eye FOMC Decision U.S. equity futures were flat in early trade as Italian shares plunged. This occurred as the euro rose above 1.35 against the dollar for the first time since 2011, showing broad strength against a basket of currencies. Economists and...

Futures Slip on Earnings, FOMC U.S. equity futures slipped in early Tuesday trade following mixed earnings reports Monday and ahead of the FOMC meeting that is set to end Wednesday. It will be interesting to see the policy statement on Wednesday, as the new Fed Presidents take their seats on the...

Futures Rise on Chinese Strength, Stimulus Hopes U.S. equity futures rose slightly in early Monday trade following news out of China that Chinese authorities will now allow direct investment of foreigners in stocks, bonds, and other financial assets. The news is just another step in China's...

Futures Slips Post-FOMC U.S. equity futures slipped in early Thursday trade after the FOMC decided to increase the size of QE3 to $85 billion of monthly purchases, up from $40 billion originally. In addition, the FOMC dropped its target date guidance for interest rates and adopted a threshold-...

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released its FOMC statement from its December meeting Once again, the central bank struck a dovish tone, sending stocks and commodities higher on the day. The statement said that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates at exceptionally low levels as long as...

Futures Rise Ahead of Fed U.S. equity futures rose in pre-market trading ahead of the FOMC rate decision. Also, Fiscal Cliff talks seem to be progressing and Democrats are willing to discuss completely rewriting the tax code, a key point of the Republican caucus. However, such a move might delay...

Futures rise on stimulus hopes. U.S. equity futures rose in early Thursday trading as the Fed signaled that it may be forced to do more easing under its third quantitative easing program to stimulate the economy. Should the U.S. go over the fiscal cliff, the Fed, in its minutes of its latest...

Initial jobless claims rose more than expected in the week ending October 12, with initial claims printing at 388,000, well above the consensus estimate of 365,000 new claims. The rise in claims is being attributed to a statistical quirk which saw the previous week's reading drop unexpectedly. At...

All eyes were on the Federal Reserve on Thursday. Market participants expected the Federal Open Market Committee to announce a third round of quantitative easing in order to help a sluggish economy and hopefully trigger a decline in the unemployment rate. The major averages meandered around the...