US stocks mixed with Fed action to restore capital requirements for major banks

U.S. stock futures are being traded mixed in the early hours of Monday, before the opening bell on Wall Street.

Ticker	Safety	Last	Change	Change %
I: DJI	DOW JONES AVERAGE	32627.97	-234.33	-0.71%
SP500	S&P 500	3913.1	-2.36	-0.06%
I: COMP	NASDAQ COMPOSITION INDEX	13215.23504	+99.07	+ 0.76%

Last week’s Fed measures will restore some of the capital requirements for large banks that were suspended in the early months of the viral outbreak, in order to give banks flexibility. The banking sector expected these measures to be extended.

But most of the Fed’s policies aimed at supporting the recovery from the pandemic remain intact.

OIL GIANT SAUDI ARAMCO SEES PROFITS IN 2020 DOWN TO $ 49 BILLION

Concerns about the coronavirus pandemic remain in the region, where vaccine launches in some countries, such as Japan and Thailand, are progressing slowly compared to the United States or Europe. However, in Japan, a “state of emergency” is being lifted this week in the Tokyo area,

Wall Street closed down last week, with all benchmarks ending in red for the week. The S&P 500 lost 0.1% to 3,913.10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.7% to 32,627.97, pulled by financial companies. The high-tech Nasdaq Composite rose 0.8% to 13,215.24.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies recovered some of their losses from the previous day, gaining 0.9% to 2,287.55.

With interest rates rising, more expensive stocks, such as technology companies, fell. The prospect of higher interest rates, as bond yields rise, worries some investors about the possibility of slowing economic growth. There are also concerns that the increase in bond yields may be a harbinger of inflation.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks were mixed on Monday as sentiment was shaken by the US Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would end some emergency measures put in place last year to help the financial sector deal with the pandemic. .

ELON MUSK LIGHTES NFT INVESTORS IN TWITTER

In the Asian trading session, Japan’s Nikkei 225 benchmark index fell 2.1% in the afternoon trading session to 29,174.15. South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.1% to 3,035.46. Australia’s S & P / ASX 200 gained 0.7% to 6,752.50. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.2% to 29,941.21, while the Shanghai Composite jumped 1.1% to 3,443.44.

The main Japanese stocks fell almost across the board, including automakers like Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., whose profits are driven by a healthy American economy. Toyota shares fell 3.3%, while Honda shares lost 3.6%.

“Asian markets had a mixed start to the week, with rising bond yields once again weighing on sentiment. The fluctuation in influence between increasing bond yields and improving the outlook for economic recovery may well remain for the region at the end of March, ”said Jingyi Pan, senior market strategist at IG in Singapore.

The Turkish lira plunged on Monday morning, dropping about 17% after the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, removed central bank president Naci Agbal from his post on Saturday. The currency was trading at around 7.8 lira per dollar on Monday morning.

Agbal had been struggling to contain inflation by raising interest rates, while Erdogan argued that rising interest rates would contribute to inflation – contrary to experience and economic theory, Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a comment. He replaced Agbal with a bank professor who advocated lower interest rates.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS

The central bank said the restrictive monetary policy would be maintained until inflation, which reached 15.61%, is controlled. An increase in the basic interest rate by 200 basis points, to 19% last week, pushed the lira up.

“Turkey will be an interesting example of what emerging markets can expect if inflation fears rise significantly,” said Halley.

In the energy trade, US benchmark oil dropped 86 cents to $ 60.58 a barrel in e-commerce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. He earned $ 1.38 to $ 61.44 a barrel on Friday. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 14 cents to $ 64.39 a barrel.

In currency trading, the US dollar advanced to 108.80 Japanese yen, from 108.65 yen. The euro cost $ 1.1892, compared to $ 1.1880.