London, Thursday, 16 December 2021
US stock markets ended lower despite a strong opening on Thursday. Investors reacted to the Fed’s intention for interest rates increase in 2022. The Fed signalled three interest rate hikes by the end of 2022 on Wednesday.
In the meantime, European stock markets closed higher as the European Central Bank (ECB) kept interest rates unchanged, declaring at the same time that the pandemic emergency programme will cease by the end of March.
At the same time, the Bank of England increased interest rates for the first time in more than three years. The rate was increased by 0.15 percentage points to 0.25%.
U.S. Stock Market Indexes
S&P 500: -41.31 (-0.88%) to 4,668.54
Nasdaq: -385.15 (-2.47%) to 15,180.43
Dow Jones: -31.11 (-0.09%) to 35,896.32
European Stock Market Indexes
STOXX Europe 600: +5.8 points, or 1.23%, to 476.56
FTSE 100 in London: +90 points, or 1.25%, to end at 7,260
DAX 30 in Germany: +160 points, or 1.03%, to close at 15,636
CAC 40 in France: +77 points, or 1.12%, to 7,005
FTSE MIB 30 in Italy: +116 points, or 0.44%, to end the day at 26,782.
IBEX 35 in Spain: the best performer of the day, + 105 points, or 1.27%, to finish at 8,380
Other markets
Ten-year U.S. Treasury notes: -4.1 bps to yield 1.4220%
Dollar index: -0.52 or -0.54% at 95.99 as of Dec 16, 2021 at 5:32 p.m. EST
VIX volatility index: +1.28 (6.64%) at 20.57 as of Dec 16, 3:15 PM CST
Oil prices
Brent crude: -0.39 or -0.52% at 74.63 as of Dec 16, 2021 10:34 p.m. GMT
West Texas Intermediate: 1.11 or 1.57% at $71.98 as of Dec 16, 2021 4:59 p.m. EST
Precious metals
Gold: +19.85 or +1.12% at $1,799.26 an ounce
Silver: +0.40 or +1.80% at $22.48 an ounce
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin: −957.00 (1.96%) at $47,927.70 as of Dec 16, 10:49 PM UTC
Etherum: −2.61 (0.06%) at $4,018.97 as of Dec 16, 10:49 PM UTC
(Written and edited by: The Decision Maker)
