Wall Street’s main stock indexes closed the session with minimal changes as markets broadly were largely rangebound ahead of Friday’s U.S. PCE price index data
A gauge of global share markets was barely changed on Thursday as it was poised to close the quarter with solid gains, while a strong dollar kept the yen near its lowest in decades amid the threat of intervention from Japanese authorities.
Wall Street’s main stock indexes closed the session with minimal changes as markets broadly were largely rangebound ahead of Friday’s much-anticipated U.S. personal consumption expenditures price index data, a closely watched inflation measure.
People are probably a little cautious about positioning ahead of PCE, said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
For a lot of people today will be the last day of the week, they are probably squaring positions for the quarter, for the month, he said.
Heightened focus was on the yen, which last weakened 0.05% against the greenback at 151.38 per dollar, having slipped to a 34-year low of 151.975 in the earlier session.
Once dollar/yen touches 152, I think there will probably be a sharp move upward, and that’s when intervention could take place, said Takeshi Ishida, a currency strategist at Resona Holdings.
The dollar gained on the euro after a U.S. Fed policymaker said he was not in a hurry to reduce rates.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Wednesday that recent disappointing inflation data affirms the case for the central bank to hold off on cutting its short-term interest rate target, but he did not rule out cutting rates later in the year.
The dollar index added 0.12% at 104.55, with the euro 0.37% lower at $1.0786.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe dropped 0.01 points to 782.93.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 47.29 points, or 0.12%, to 39,807.37, the S&P 500 added 5.86 points, or 0.11%, to 5,254.35 and the Nasdaq Composite shed 20.06 points, or 0.12%, to 16,379.46.
Data on Thursday showed the U.S. economy grew faster than previously estimated in the fourth quarter, lifted by strong consumer spending and business investment in nonresidential structures such as factories. GDP increased at a 3.4% annualized rate last quarter, revised up from the previously reported 3.2% pace.
