Vacillating expectations of a US-China trade agreement and a combination of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s congressional comments and mixed U.S. economic reports left U.S stock markets and the U.S dollar little changed on the week.
Vacillating expectations of a US-China trade agreement and a combination of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s congressional comments and mixed U.S. economic reports left U.S stock markets and the U.S dollar little changed on the week.
Increasing expectations of a U.S.-China trade agreement and growing conviction the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank won’t raise rates this year helped move commodity and stock markets higher last week.
Markedly lower European Union growth forecasts combined with reduced expectations of a US-China trade agreement before March 1st moved the U.S. dollar higher and commodity prices lower last week.
Reports on Friday the Federal Reserve Bank would end its balance sheet wind-down sooner than expected help weaken the U.S dollar and supported U.S. stock markets.
Despite increased estimates of the cost of the government shutdown on U.S. GDP and the disruption of some government issued economic reports, the U.S. dollar strengthened and U.S stock markets rose on reduced concerns of slowing U.S. growth, optimism over a U.S. China-trade agreement and a much-stronger-than-expected industrial production report released on Friday.
uoyed by US-China trade talk progress, FOMC minutes indicating a more flexible U.S. Federal Reserve Bank and a weaker-than-expected CPI number, the S&P 500 increased 2.5% and the U.S. dollar weakened 0.57%.