Federal Reserve Policy and Equity Market Response
The Federal Reserve held rates at 3.75–4.00% on 28 October, with a 10–2 vote, and markets treated the decision as priced in while focusing on a data‑dependent hawkish hold that left a December hike as the base case without explicit forward guidance. Equities edged higher but lacked momentum: the S&P 500 rose to 7,743.98 (+0.28%) and the Nasdaq 100 to 29,813.16 (+0.55%), with the Dow 30 at 52,475.10 (+0.19%); Japan 225 climbed to 64,659.25 (+1.10%), while the FTSE 100 was 10,694.50 (+0.07%) and the CAC 40 was flat at 7,886.96. In mega‑cap tech, Alphabet gained to 324.89 (+1.34%) as Apple slipped to 343.83 (‑0.94%) and NVIDIA to 215.38 (‑1.17%), pointing to rotation.
Commodities, Crypto, Currencies, and Bond Yields
Crypto and commodities eased, with Bitcoin at 79,827.72 (‑1.74%) alongside Ethereum at 2,309.40 (‑2.00%), while gold fell to 4,037.2 (‑0.36%) and crude oil to 101.87 (‑0.89%). FX moves were tight, including EURUSD at 1.11473 (‑0.06%) and USDJPY at 157.794 (+0.02%). Government bond yields softened after the presser, with the US 10Y at 5.001% (‑0.04%), Eurozone at 3.353% (‑0.27%) and the UK at 5.321% (‑0.56%), leaving November framed by incoming data and oil‑driven inflation risk.
