Morning Briefing: All eyes on the Fed, well almost

All eyes on the Fed, well almost
The markets are focused mostly on the Fed which announces its interest rate decision Wednesday and will also give some clues to how future rates may unfold.

That’s not the only focus of investors in this session though as voters in the Netherlands decide on the shape of their new government amid global concern of a rising tide of populism. 

Oil prices are also making headlines with a rebound overnight following industry data from the US showing a larger-than-expected draw on crude stockpiles; government data is due later.

Asian equities closed mostly lower as the main issues were joined by mixed regional data. Sydney and Shanghai were the best performers of the session. China’s premier spoke about the importance of good relations with the US ahead of talks with Donald Trump in April.

European markets are awaiting the Fed but also closely watching the Dutch election. With further regional votes to come, there is concern that the Brexit vote will exacerbate anti-EU feeling which could threaten the bloc’s future. Eurozone employment data is due.

Wall Street and Toronto are expected to open higher. Along with the Fed meeting there is a raft of US data due. Canadian home sales data is due.
 

	Latest	1 month ago	1 year ago
North America (previous session)
US Dow Jones	20,837.37 (-0.21 per cent)	+1.09 per cent	+20.79 per cent
TSX Composite	15,379.61 (-1.06 per cent)	-2.94 per cent	+14.77 per cent
Europe (at 5.00am ET)
UK FTSE	7,370.42 (+0.17 per cent)	+0.93 per cent	+20.04 per cent
German DAX	12,003.63 (+0.12 per cent)	+1.78 per cent	+20.84 per cent
Asia (at close)
China CSI 300	3,463.64 (+0.20 per cent)	+1.23 per cent	+12.65 per cent
Japan Nikkei	19,577.38 (-0.16 per cent)	+0.72 per cent	+14.37 per cent
Other Data (at 5.00am ET)
Oil (Brent)	Oil (WTI)	Gold	Can. Dollar
51.66 (+1.43 per cent)	48.55 (+1.74 per cent)	1202.30 (-0.02 per cent)	U$0.7423
			Aus. Dollar
			U$0.7584

Oil demand will ease this year says IEA

The International Energy Agency says that demand for oil will ease during 2017 but has urged investors to be patient on the rebalancing of the market.

In its latest report, the IEA said that OPEC nations signed up to the production cuts are 98 per cent compliant but volatility for the market will continue.

The slowdown in demand was seen in January in Japan, Germany, Korea and India.