US PRE MARKET
The S&P 500 Futures are trading at 2,698.75 with a loss of -0.72% percent or -19.50 point. Other U.S. stock futures are lower in pre-market trading for Thursday, March 22. The Dow Futures are trading at 24,546.00 with a loss of -0.73% percent or -181.00 point. The Nasdaq Futures are trading at 6,801.25 with a loss of -1.20% percent or -82.75 point.
THURSDAY’S FACTORS AND EVENTS
WEDNESDAY’S ACTIVITY
U.S. market were lower on Wednesday. For the day the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 24,682.31 with a loss of -0.18% percent or -44.96 point. The S&P 500 closed at 2,711.93 with a loss of -0.18% percent or -5.01 point. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 7,345.28 with a loss of -0.26% percent or -19.02 point.
Other leading market index closes included the small-cap Russell 2000 Index closed at 1,579.30 for up with +0.57%percent or +8.90 point; the S&P 600 Small-Cap Index closed at 964.15 for up with +0.49% percent or+ 4.72 point; the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index closed at 1,924.69 for up with +0.31% percent or +5.95 point; the S&P 100 Index closed at 1,189.53 with a loss of -0.24% percent or -2.90 point; the Russell 3000 Index closed at 1,608.57 with a loss of -0.09% percent or -1.41 point; the Russell 1000 Index closed at 1,504.48 with a loss of -0.14% percent or -2.14 point; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index closed at 24,682.31 with a loss of -0.18% percent or -44.96 point.
WORLD MARKETS
In overnight trading in the Eastern Hemisphere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 are trading at 21,591.99 for up with +0.99% percent or +211.02 point. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng are trading at 31,215.74 with a loss of -0.63% percent or -198.78 point. China’s Shanghai Composite are trading at 3,263.48 with a loss of -0.53% percent or -17.47 point. India’s BSE Sensex are trading at 33,124.73 with a loss of -0.03% percent or -11.45 point at 12:15 PM.The FTSE 100 are trading at 7,002.95 with a loss of -0.51% percent or -36.02 point. Germany’s DAX are trading at 12,189.65 with a loss of -0.97% percent or -0.97% point. France’s CAC 40 are trading at 5,193.00 with a loss of -0.89% percent or -46.74 point. The Stoxx Europe 600 are trading at 372.32 with a loss of -0.73% percent or -2.74 point.
“The initial reaction in stock was because the median dot plot didn’t go up for 2018,” said James Athey, senior investment manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments. “Then there was the more concerned reaction, with investors saying: ‘Hold on, there’s one more rate hike in for 2019.'”
The Fed raised overnight rates by 25 basis points, in line with market expectations. Central bank officials also raised their GDP forecast.
“The economic outlook has strengthened in recent months,” the committee said in its post-meeting statement, a sentence that had not been in previous releases. “Job gains have been strong in recent months, and the unemployment rate has stayed low