Hawkish FOMC this week's main feature

THE US Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting this week was meant to be a non-event as markets had for several weeks already been expecting an interest rate hike. As it turned out, the Fed lived up to expectations with a 25 basis points rate hike but simultaneously indicated that there could be three more hikes next year instead of the two that markets had forecast.

This unexpected hawkishness brought the sellers out, dragging the Straits Times Index (STI) 23 points lower on …