Australian stock futures fell in line with a sharp turn in New York, after Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell refused to shift from his cautious outlook on interest rates. Still, US equities settled, and the S&P 500 closed little changed.
Markets have been positioning for three rate cuts of a quarter of one percentage each, with the second approved this morning. The Fed’s final policy meeting of the year is in December.
A key reason for Powell’s caution is the dearth of data due to the US federal government shutdown. The probability of a quarter point cut in December fell to 67.8 per cent, according to the CME’s FedWatch Tool. It was 90.5 per cent the previous day.
Source: https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/asx-to-slip-wall-st-steady-as-fed-decision-parsed-20251030-p5n6dd