Australian shares are poised to open lower, taking direction from a sharp reversal in New York after the Federal Reserve released its final policy decision of the year and revised economic projections.
Fed chairman Jerome Powell said officials were not close to ending their aggressive campaign of interest-rate increases. “We still have some ways to go. Restoring price stability will likely require maintaining a restrictive policy stance for some time,” he told reporters. US benchmarks were all up about 0.8 per cent shortly before the Fed released its rate statement and revised economic projections. They fell sharply, with the Dow trading down 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq’s losses reaching 1 per cent.Policymakers projected rates would end next year at 5.1 per cent - dashing bets that the Fed could pivot to a rate cut in the second half of 2023. Rate are forecast to be 4.1 per cent at the end of 2024.