World Market News of the 29 December with FXOpen
JUST A BIT MORE TO GO Stock futures were inched higher on Friday as Wall Street looks to end a winning year on a high note and possibly a new milestone. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures ticked up 28 points, or less than 0.1%, while Nasdaq-100 futures were also 0.1% higher. The S&P 500 enters the final trading day of 2023 less than 0.5% from a new record high, which could serve as an exclamation point on a rally that has gained strength in the final months of the year. Source: CNBC
DOLLAR SNAPS TWO-YEAR WINNING STREAK ON 2024 RATE CUT BETS The dollar looked set on Friday to end 2023 with a loss, reversing two straight years of gains, dragged by market expectations that the US Federal Reserve could begin easing rates as early as next March. The greenback stayed broadly on the back foot on the last trading day of the year, with currency moves subdued amid a holiday lull leading up to the New Year. Since the Fed launched its aggressive rate-hike cycle in early 2022, expectations of how far U.S. rates would have to rise have been a huge driver of the dollar for the most part of the past two years. Source: Reuters
CHINA’S ECONOMY HAD A MISERABLE YEAR. 2024 MIGHT BE EVEN WORSE The Chinese economy was expected to recover quickly in 2023 and resume its role as the undisputed engine of global growth. Instead, it stalled to the point where it’s being called a “drag” on world output by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others. Despite its many problems — a property crisis, weak spending and high youth unemployment — most economists think the world’s second largest economy will hit its official growth target of around 5% this year. But that is still below the 6%-plus annual growth averaged in the decade before the Covid pandemic, and 2024 is increasingly looking ominous, they said. The country may be staring at decades of stagnation thereafter. Source: CNN