{"id":68680,"date":"2024-03-21T17:24:21","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T06:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/?p=68680"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:03:44","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T11:03:44","slug":"thursday-21st-march-2024-asian-markets-reach-new-highs-on-feds-rate-cut-forecast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/thursday-21st-march-2024-asian-markets-reach-new-highs-on-feds-rate-cut-forecast\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday 21st March 2024 : Asian Markets Reach New Highs on Fed&#8217;s Rate Cut Forecast"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3><br \/><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>&nbsp;Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 2.08%, Shanghai Composite up 0.02%, Hang Seng up 2.28% ASX up 2.12%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $2209.5 (2.26%), Silver at $25.87 (3.13%), Brent Oil at $86.43 (0.52%), WTI Oil at $81.7 (0.59%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.27, UK 10-year yield at 4.054, Germany 10-year yield at 2.432<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>(USD) Federal Funds Rate 5.5% vs 5.5% expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3>Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On Thursday, Japan&#8217;s stock market hit a new all-time high, buoyed by Asian markets following the Federal Reserve&#8217;s decision to maintain its forecast for three rate cuts this year. The Fed kept rates steady at 5.25%-5.5% during its latest meeting, with its &#8220;dot plot&#8221; indicating the expectation of three cuts, though without specifying their timing. The updated dot plot also hinted at three cuts in 2025, one fewer than previously projected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asia&#8217;s markets soared, with South Korea&#8217;s Kospi surging over 2.35% to its highest level since April 2022, and Japan&#8217;s Nikkei 225 climbing 2.08% to reach a fresh all-time high. Hong Kong&#8217;s Hang Seng index saw a robust gain of 1.74%, while mainland China&#8217;s CSI 300 experienced a slight dip of 0.17%. In Australia, the S&amp;P\/ASX 200 advanced by 2.12%, supported by positive flash data indicating accelerated business activity in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the U.S., all three major indexes closed higher overnight, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallying by 1.03% to finish at 39,512.13 and the S&amp;P 500 gaining 0.89% to close at 5,224.62, surpassing the 5,200 mark for the first time. The Nasdaq Composite also surged by 1.25%, driven primarily by megacap tech stocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, the global market sentiment remains optimistic, with investors reacting positively to the Fed&#8217;s decision and economic indicators pointing towards continued growth. Japan&#8217;s record high and the strong performance across Asian and U.S. markets reflect this upbeat outlook, despite some fluctuations and uncertainties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3>Upcoming Events:&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>12:00 PM GMT &#8211; GBP Official Bank Rate<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12:00 PM GMT &#8211; GBP Monetary Policy Summary<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>12:30 PM GMT &#8211; USD Unemployment Claims<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: On Thursday, Japan&#8217;s stock [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79815,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[196,215,339],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68681,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68680\/revisions\/68681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}