Miners rebounded propping up the wider stock market.
The sector had been hit hard over the preceding two sessions, first on Monday after the Beijing set what appeared to be a lower target for economic growth than had been anticipated and then again on Tuesday following hawkish remarks from the head of the US central bank.
Come Wednesday however, in his second day of testimony before the US Congress, Jerome Powell said that the size of the next interest rate hike – whether it would be 25 or 50 basis points – had not yet been decided.
“We have not made any decision about the March meeting. We’re not going to do that until we see the additional data,” Powell said.
He was presumably referring to the February non-farm payrolls report that was due out on 10 March, followed by consumer and wholesale price data for that same month on 14 and 15 March, respectively.
The Fed’s policymakers were next due to meet on 21-22 March.
In his second day of testimony, Powell also said that the faster reopening of China’s economy had the potential to put upwards pressure on commodity prices.
His expectation was that the effect of China’s reopening would be moderate overall.
Powell also said that the costs of failure in restoring price stability would be “extremely high”, which would be a bad thing for the country.
Top performing sectors so far today
Industrial Metals & Mining 7,380.83 +1.30%
Aerospace and Defence 6,102.78 +1.10%
Gas, Water & Multiutilities 5,929.74 +1.10%
General Industrials 6,535.61 +0.96%
Banks 3,864.23 +0.75%
Bottom performing sectors so far today
Automobiles & Parts 2,071.44 -2.62%
Real Estate Investment Trusts 2,327.59 -1.43%
Leisure Goods 22,484.98 -1.04%
Travel & Leisure 7,494.45 -0.86%
Personal Goods 35,336.36 -0.59%
