AGL 40.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
AIRLINK 127.04 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BOP 6.67 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
CNERGY 4.51 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
DCL 8.55 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
DFML 41.44 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
DGKC 86.85 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FCCL 32.28 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFBL 64.80 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFL 10.25 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
HUBC 109.57 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
HUMNL 14.68 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
KEL 5.05 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
KOSM 7.46 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
MLCF 41.38 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
NBP 60.41 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
OGDC 190.10 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PAEL 27.83 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PIBTL 7.83 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PPL 150.06 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PRL 26.88 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PTC 16.07 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
SEARL 86.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TELE 7.71 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TOMCL 35.41 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TPLP 8.12 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TREET 16.41 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TRG 53.29 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
UNITY 26.16 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
WTL 1.26 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,993 Increased By 109.3 (1.11%)
BR30 30,985 Increased By 385.5 (1.26%)
KSE100 94,050 Increased By 694.8 (0.74%)
KSE30 29,161 Increased By 229.8 (0.79%)

The S&P 500 and Dow touched two-month lows on Thursday, a day after hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve suggested interest rates could be hiked as early as June. Minutes of the Fed's April meeting, released on Wednesday, caught the market by surprise as they showed that most policymakers thought a June rate hike was appropriate, given continued improvement in the US economy.
New York Fed President William Dudley said on Thursday that June is definitely a "live" meeting and that a rate hike in June or July is a reasonable expectation. "We are on track to satisfy a lot of the conditions" for a rate increase, said Dudley, a voting member of the central bank's policy setting committee. The Fed meets on June 14-15.
Prices for contracts on the Fed funds rate implied investors saw a 26 percent chance of a June rate increase, up from 19 percent before the minutes were released, according to CME Group. Data showed the number of Americans filing for unemployment aid fell from a 14-month high last week, the latest sign the economy was picking up speed in the second quarter.
"The main driver of what's going on, is the Fed. The market had believed that there may be one rate hike and certainly they had taken June off the table," said Ernie Cecilia, chief investment officer of Bryn Mawr Trust. "I think that (the market) had become complacent." At 12:50 pm ET (1650 GMT), the Dow Jones industrial average was down 150.21 points, or 0.86 percent, at 17,376.41, the S&P 500 was down 17.17 points, or 0.84 percent, at 2,030.46 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 50.31 points, or 1.06 percent, at 4,688.81.

Copyright Reuters, 2016

Comments

Comments are closed.