FED Rate Decision

UNITED STATES

FOMC left the rate unchanged on Wednesday meeting with Jay Powell saying that they will stay there. FED chairman mentioned that US requires more fiscal and monetary stimulus in order to offset the shock caused by Covid-19 while the pace of QE will be left unchanged. Stocks ended the day higher – S&P added 1.2%, Nasdaq +1.4%. The yield on 10Y UST continued falling, it lost another 2.4 bp on Wednesday and closed at 0.576%.

UNITED KINGDOM

UK government is expanding its Covid-19 rescue loan scheme to help small businesses which are close to collapse. It will allow firms previously locked out of the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) to access government funds. The yield on 10Y UKTs closed 1 bps higher, at 0.117% while GBP strengthened to 1.2997 vs USD.

ASIA

Asian markets are trading higher this morning supported by positive sentiment from the US: Hang Seng is up by 1%, ASX is trading 0.7% higher.

CIS

Russian Ministry of Finance held the smallest auction in four weeks yesterday – it placed just RUB 27.8 bn (comparing to average of RUB 65 bn for the last three weeks). Ruble closed 0.1% lower on Wednesday vs USD at 72.59 lvl while sovereign Eurobonds traded higher – RUSSIA 29 lost 2bps in yield, RUSSIA 47 lost 4.5 bps in yield.

OIL

After touching the all-time highs in recent sessions, gold lost 0.4% yesterday and closed at USD 1961.91 per ounce. Oil traded flat on Wednesday, Brent closed at USD 43.74 per barrel.

SSA

On the SSA front, Ghana bonds continued falling affected by the news on GDP shortfall which will probably spread from 4.7% (initial projection) to 11.4%. Ghana 61 lost 5 point within a week (- 1pt yesterday) while NGERIA and ANGOL traded flat yesterday without any significant news and oil price movements.