Yesterday, the report of the Federal Reserve January meeting was published, which pointed to the improvement of the US economy and the probability of a more rapid rate increase. At the moment, more than 80% of financial markets participants believe that the regulator will tighten monetary policy in March. The Federal Reserve officials also noted that the inflation will probably reach the target level of 2%. As a result, the US currency strengthened against the major currencies. The US dollar index (DX) closed in the positive zone (+0.44%).

The British pound began to decline after it became known that the unemployment rate in the UK rose to 4.4%, while experts expected the figure of 4.3%. The number of unemployed increased by 46 thousand to 1.47 million people. At the same time, the average wage level increased by 2.5% instead of the forecasted 2.4%.

The “black gold” prices began to decline against the strengthening of the US dollar. Futures for the WTI crude oil are being traded in the range of $61.00- $61.25 per barrel. We recommend you to pay attention to the report on crude oil inventories in the US at 18:00 (GMT+2:00).

Market Indicators

Yesterday, the major US stock indices closed in the negative zone: SPY (-0.50%), DIA (-0.65%), QQQ (-0.28%).

The 10-year US government bonds yield began to grow after the publication of the report of the Fed January meeting. At the moment the indicator is at the level of 2.93%.

The news feed on 2018.02.22: