(MENAFN– ecpulse)
The Federal Reserve`s looming policy decision kept the European trade shortened early Tuesday, swinging traders between the cooling tension over Crimea and a handful of macro economic news.
Markets jitters persist and investors are still anxious about further potential sanctions against Russia, although t ension over the crisis in Crimea seems to have eased, following comments by Russian President Vladimr Putin that he did not want to split Ukraine after approving a draft to make Crimea part of Russia.
Meanwhile, focus shifts to the Federal Reserve`s policy review, expected to leave the key interest rate unchanged, but some experts believe the bank will probably cut its bond purchases by another $10 billion.
As of 04:39 a.m. ET, the Stoxx Europe 600 was down 0.22% at 327.20, dragged by a 0.51% drop in utilities.
- Frankfurt`s DAX 30 fell 0.15% to 9,228.39
- Paris`s CAC 40 fell 0.38% to 4,296.85
- London`s FTSE 100 fell 0.35% to 6,582.09
The Bank of England`s minutes for March Meeting signaled policymakers were unanimous to holding inerest rate at 0.50% and amout of asset purchases at 375 billion pounds.
The minutes stressed on the risk of the pound’s appreciation as it puts downside pressure on inflation, which retreated below the BOE’s target to 1.9 percent.
“Sterling has appreciated by another 1.5 percent during this month, and it was possible that this gradual appreciations would continue if prospects in the U.K. continued to be seen as increasingly favorable relative to those of it’s main trading partners,” minutes said.
Separately, UK ILO unemployment for the three months through January came at 7.2 percent, in line with the previous reading and median forecasts too.
The number of job seekers retreated by 63,000 to 2.33 million in the three months through January, while the number of workers edged up 105,000 to 30.2 million.
In February, jobless claims dropped 34,600 from a revised of 33,900 drop in January and median forecast of 25,000 fall.
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