Analysts favour US equities, dollar as Fed remains hawkish

MARKETS traded lower on Thursday (Dec 15) as investors came to terms with further hawkishness from the Federal Reserve overnight.

Stock markets in Asia were in the red. Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended the day down 0.4 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi declined 1.6 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index lost 1.6 per cent, and the local benchmark Straits Times Index slipped 0.2 per cent.

At its close on Wednesday, the broad-based S&P 500 index shed 0.6 per cent while the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.8 per cent.