Federal Reserve extends Operation Twist $AUDUSD
- Published: 21 June 2012
- The Federal Reserve as expected announced an extension of Operation Twist which is a bond buying program designed to lower the long term interest rate on Treasuries so as to stimulate the economic recovery
- Despite Operation Twist the market is still looking for another round of coordinated quantitative easing from the worlds major central banks
- Tempering the market was the announcement by the Fed that it is lowering its economic forecast for the US economy for the next two years
- The weakening sentiment flowed through to some of the bell weather stocks with household product giant Procter & Gamble cutting growth forecasts for the second time in two months. The stock fell 2.9% to close at $60.39
- Software giant Adobe Systems fell 3% to $31.99 after it cut its revenue forecast and warned of weaker demand coming out of Europe
- Leading the moves on the Dow was JPM (+3.02%) and PG (-2.93%)
- DOW –0.10%, S&P500 –0.17%, NASDAQ +0.02%
- Currencies whipped around overnight, AUD is holding on the chance of QE3
- Gold fell 0.9% on QE3 disappointment, Crude fell 2.7% on higher inventories
