Good morning and welcome to the markets blog.
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Yesterday was all about Australia’s better than expected inflation figures, at one point raising the odds of an interest rate cut in February well above 90%.
Today is all about the overnight actions of the US Federal Reserve, which surprised no-one by leaving interest rates on hold at 4.25-4.5%.
The key takeaway is that in his post-meeting presser, Fed chair Jerome Powell said the bank is in no hurry to cut rates further, leaving markets to keep pricing in the next cut for June and probably only two in total this year.
That saw the major US share indices down between 0.3% for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 0.5% for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq.
The ASX futures have the top 200 Australian stocks set for a very modest sub-0.1% fall at the open.
Stay with us through the day as we follow the market action.
