Global shares suffered a brutal sell-off as the dust settled on this week's US Federal Reserve interest rate increase, and investors began to doubt whether leading central banks can succeed in taming inflation without causing recession.P/ASX 200 Index was on track for a loss of 2.
The Fed this week opted for a 50 basis point increase, which it signalled was also on the table for the Fed’s policy meetings in June and July. The US cash rate, known as the Fed funds rate, sits between 0.75 per cent to 1 per cent. Those moves were reciprocated on the local market, where the Australian 10-year bond yield jumped 12 basis points to 3.5 per cent. The three-year bond jumped 10 basis points to 3.2 per cent.Safe haven demand drove the US dollar to a fresh 20-year high against a basket of major currencies, while the pound fell to its lowest level since June 2020.
This could be partly offset by policy easing in China as the government attempts to hit its official growth target of 5.5 per cent which is increasingly doubted by economists. Brent crude added 0.6 per cent to $US110.85 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate edged 0.3 per cent higher to $US108.14 a barrel.