- The dollar index is up 0.05 to 97.486 but the dollar was down about 0.1 percent against its Japanese counterpart at 112.02 yen JPY=, though it held above a two-week low of 111.04 yen plumbed overnight.
The euro was steady at $1.1015 EUR= after touching a three-week low of $1.0957 overnight.
- New U.S. single-family home sales tumbled in January from a 10-month high as sales in the West region plunged, but the overall housing market recovery remains intact.
Other data on Wednesday showed the services sector contracted in early February for the first time since October 2013, suggesting a weakening of economic conditions outside the troubled manufacturing and energy industries.
- Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said on Wednesday that he does not expect the United States to enter recession this year. And he is analyzing in determining whether to support further rate hikes this year.
- The disconnect between the Fed and markets over the trajectory of interest rate policy decisions is promoting volatility and feeding investors' anxiety, Burt White, LPL Financial's chief investment officer, said Wednesday on CNBC.
Though the financial turmoil of 2016 has put the central bank's aggressive path in doubt among market participants, the Fed generally does not care about market swings, White noted on "Power Lunch."
"The big thing we're watching here is the Fed," he said. "The market is really looking for the Fed to signal they're going to be on pause for a while, but the Fed really is pretty resistant to volatility."
And, if the Fed starts to see inflation "show some green shoots," said White, there will be even more concern among investors that a rate hike will occur in this apparently shaky market.
- The Group of 20 nations must plan now for a coordinated stimulus program to keep a slowing global economy from stalling, International Monetary Fund staff said in a report on Wednesday.
The report was prepared for senior G20 officials who are meeting in Shanghai later this week amid falling equity markets, volatile currencies and signs of economic weakness throughout the world.
"The G20 must plan now for coordinated demand support using available fiscal space to boost public investment," IMF staff said in the report.
- Moody’s Investors Service cut Brazil’s sovereign-credit rating to junk status on Wednesday, making it the third major rating firm to yank the nation’s investment-grade rating since September.
Moody’s put Brazil two notches into junk territory, reducing its rating to Ba2 from Baa3 with a negative outlook, highlighting the possibility of further downgrades. Moody’s cited uncertainty over an effort to impeach President Dilma Rousseff and a widening corruption scandal that has paralyzed the nation’s leadership, hampering efforts to shore up its crumbling finances.
- U.S. crude's discount to U.K.'s Brent, one of the biggest trades in oil, has hit a 10-week high as record high stockpiles pressure anew the market which traded at a premium to the global benchmark two months ago.
U.S. crude's West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures settled $2.26 a barrel lower versus Brent on Wednesday, after reaching an intraday discount as wide as $2.33, the largest since Dec. 14. The spread has widened three days in a row in Brent's favor.
Reference: CNBC, Reuters, WSJ
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