An employee passes share price information displayed on an electronic ticker board inside the London Stock Exchange Group’s offices in London, the UK. Picture: BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES/LUKE MACGREGOR
US shares looked set to follow suit with S&P futures up 1% as markets recovered from a round of selling following hawkish remarks by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole conference last week. Besides interest rates, the health of China’s economy is also at the forefront of investor concerns. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.6% on news that several big cities had ramped up Covid-19 restrictions.
“The markets’ focus for the next couple of weeks, at least, will be the likely Fed action,” said Manishi Raychaudhuri, head of APAC equity research at BNP Paribas. US treasuries settled down on Tuesday morning. The two-year yield fell to 3.413%, after rising as high as 3.489% on Monday, its highest since late 2007.
The dollar index, which measures the currency's value against a basket of peers, edged down to ¥108.44, not far from the two decade peak of ¥109.48 it made a day earlier. The dollar traded at $0.9999 per euro and bought ¥138.52.