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Category: Stockmarket / Currency / Markets / Futures / Money and Monetary Policy

Wall St trades flat ahead of Fed decision, iron ore slumps

Wednesday, 16 Mar 2016 05:36:46 | Thuy Ong

Investors are pondering the future direction of markets after the recent commodity and stock rally. (Brendan McDermid, file photo: Reuters)

Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index finished lower for a second straight day as investors remained cautious ahead of the outcome from the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting.

While the Federal Reserve is not expected to raise rates at this meeting, investors are looking to the Fed's chair Janet Yellen for any clues surrounding a path for future rate hikes.

The S&P 500 dipped 0.2 per cent to 2,016.

The Nasdaq slipped 0.5 per cent to 4,729, while the blue chip Dow Jones Industrial Average managed to eke out a gain of 0.1 per cent to 17,252.

Overnight, European shares were hit by weakness in resource stocks as commodities markets posted the biggest two-day slide in a month.

Iron ore dropped nearly 7 per cent to at $US51.70 a tonne, a fifth straight day of declines.

Spot gold fell to its lowest in almost two weeks at $US1,233 an ounce.

West Texas crude also fell 2 per cent to $US36.34 a barrel as Russia indicated Iran would not join major producers in freezing output.

In London, the FTSE 100 lost 0.6 per cent to 6,140, the German DAX also fell 0.6 per cent to 9,934, while France's CAC 40 was down 0.8 per cent to 4,473.

Locally, shares are set for a muted start, with the ASX SPI 200 slipping 0.1 per cent to 5,099.

Among currencies, the Australian dollar dipped 0.8 per cent against the greenback to 74.6 US cents.

It was buying 84.3 Japanese yen, 52.7 British pence, 67.1 euro cents and $NZ1.13.

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