Europe’s, Asia’s stock markets come off their lows, dollar slumps

US EQUITY futures fluctuated before the bourse opened yesterday, while stocks in Europe and Asia came off their lows as markets showed signs of steadying in the wake of the Federal Reserve decision a day earlier. The dollar slumped against most peers and the yen rallied.

Contracts on the S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq indexes gyrated between gains and losses after the underlying gauges declined on Wednesday when Fed chairperson Jerome Powell said that the process of reversing quantitative easing (QE) was on “autopilot” and downplayed the implications of market volatility.

The Stoxx Europe 600 recovered some losses, but remained broadly lower, while Japanese shares slid into a bear market. The pound trimmed again after Britain’s central bank said it now sees inflation slowing to below the 2 percent target as soon as January.

Benchmark Treasuries edged down after steep gains on Wednesday. The greenback slid against almost every major counterpart, helping the yen climb to its strongest since mid-September. Oil tumbled in New York.

While policymakers signalled a less aggressive rate-hike path in 2019, Wednesday’s quarter-point increase and Powell’s comment over the process of unwinding QE seemed to spook markets.

Global stocks are set for their worst quarter since 2011, yet the Fed chairperson in his press conference said that “we don’t look at any one market”.