Market Highlights 💡 - 20 March 2024

Wow, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) raises interest rates for the first time in 17 years!

Finally the end!

🇺🇸 S&P 500: 0.56% 📈

🇺🇸 Nasdaq: 0.39% 📈

🇪🇺 Stoxx 600: 0.26% 📈

🇯🇵Nikkei 225 Index: 0.66%📈

🇭🇰Hang Seng: -1.24%📉

🇨🇳CSI 300: -0.72% 📉

• U.S. stocks ended higher, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite up 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively, as investors braced for the Federal Reserve's latest policy decision and a "dot plot" showing the path of interest rates in the coming months. .

• The Eurozone ZEW economic confidence index rose 8.5 points to 33.5 in March 2024 (forecast: 25.4), the highest level since February 2022.

• Asia-Pacific stock markets were mixed, with the Nikkei 225 up 0.7% after the Bank of Japan's historic policy changes, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell broadly -1.2% amid tightening regulations on China's financial sector.

• The Bank of Japan (BoJ) raised key short-term interest rates to around 0% to 0.1% from -0.1%, in line with market expectations, while ending yield curve control on 10-year government bonds and halting purchases of ETFs and J-REITs.

Bank of Japan

💡 Things you need to know today: 💡

1. China announced new regulations that stipulate that qualified companies providing consumer loans must have a minimum registered capital of 1 billion yuan, which is more than three times the 300 million yuan stipulated in the 2014 regulations.

2. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept the cash rate at 4.35% at its March meeting, as widely expected, and reiterated that all policy options remain under consideration as the war on inflation "has not yet been won".

RBA

3. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda said: "Like other central banks, we have resumed normal monetary policy targeting short-term interest rates. We will choose an appropriate short-term interest rate level based on the economic and price outlook."

4. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang estimates that more than $250 billion will be spent developing accelerated computing components, of which Nvidia is a major supplier.

Jensen Huang

5. A U.S. Senate panel said it is stepping up its investigation into billions of dollars in annual costs for baggage, seat selection, ticket changes and other services and is giving airlines until next month to respond.

✅ Key Points:

The Fed is widely expected to keep interest rates on hold at today's meeting, with focus on the summary of economic forecasts released each quarter.

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