US markets benefit from easing interest rate concerns

Thursday, 31 Mar 2016 07:13:55 | Rebecca Hyam

An investor watches the boards at the Australian Stock Exchange in August 2007. (AAP: Dean Lewins, file photo)

Markets in the United States have continued to benefit from easing concerns about potential interest rate increases in the overnight trading session.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve Chair, Janet Yellen, said the Central Bank should proceed cautiously as it looked to raise rates.

Her remarks were echoed on Wednesday by the Chicago Fed president, Charles Evans, who said there was a high hurdle to raising rates in April given low inflation.

Investors also took heart from a report by the payroll firm, ADP, which showed the US private sector added a solid 200,000 jobs in March.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.47 per cent higher at 17,716.

The S&P 500 Index rose by 0.44 per cent to 2,063 and the NASDAQ closed up 28 points to 4,869.

European markets also posted solid gains overnight — in London, the FTSE 100 Index added 97 points, or 1.6 per cent to 6,203.

It is set to be a strong start on the local share market and in futures trading, at 7:50am AEDT the ASX SPI 200 was up 0.8 per cent to 5,035.

At the same time, the Australian dollar was buying 76.65 US cents, having jumped by more than 0.5 per cent overnight.

On the cross-rates, it was worth 67.64 eurocents, 53.33 British pence, 86.2 Japanese yen and $NZ1.10.

West Texas Crude oil was trading at $US36.68 a barrel, a barrel of Tapis was fetching $US40.11 and spot gold had edged down to $US1,224.32 an ounce.

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US markets benefit from easing interest rate concerns

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