Good morning. The FT100 built upon its recent recovery on expectations for more monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank next month. Antofagasta rose 5.8 percent despite copper prices remaining weak, after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to “neutral” from “sell”. Oil and gas firms also rallied as Brent crude futures rose by over a dollar. Investors also pointed to U.S. FOMC minutes, at 1900 GMT, as being able to provide clues as to the timing of a Federal Reserve Rate hike. The S&P 500 hit a session high on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve meeting showed a solid core of officials rallied behind a possible December rate hike. The best sectors were commodities and oil, with travel and leisure being the weakest.
US & Asia Overnight from Bloomberg
Asian stocks rose, following a rally in U.S. shares, after minutes from the most recent Federal Reserve meeting showed policy makers’ faith in the world’s biggest economy, with officials saying the pace of any rate increases will be gradual.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 0.7 percent to 132.47 as of 9:02 a.m. in Tokyo. Through Wednesday, the gauge rallied 8.6 percent from a two-year low in September as investors prepare for the first U.S. interest-rate increase since 2006. In the statement following their October gathering, Fed policy makers made it clear that a rise would be considered at the Dec. 15-16 meeting.
“The pace of the rise is what’s much more important than the rate rise itself,” said Angus Gluskie, a managing director who oversees $550 million at White Funds Management in Sydney. “If a rise occurs slowly then markets, investors and consumers all have time to respond to it and adjust accordingly. That’s the ideal circumstance and that’s certainly what the Fed is trying to achieve.”
Japan’s Topix index advanced 0.9 percent after the yen weakened against the dollar for a third day on Wednesday. All 41 economists in a Nov. 13-17 Bloomberg poll predict no change at the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting ending on Thursday. Forty-six percent of respondents don’t expect the BOJ to boost its current pace of asset purchases — up from 33 percent last month.
South Korea’s Kospi index rose 0.7 percent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index gained 1.1 percent. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index added 0.1 percent.
Markets in Hong Kong and China have yet to open. Futures on the Hang Seng Index climbed 0.5 percent and contracts on the FTSE China A50 Index rose 0.6 percent in most recent trading.
E-mini futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed after the underlying gauge rose 1.6 percent on Wednesday, the most in four weeks, as gains among banks and biotechnology companies led the rally. [Bloomberg]
FTSE Outlook and Prediction
FTSE finally managed to reach the 6300 level mentioned way back on Monday(!) and is now hitting the top of the 2 Bianca channels at 6303 and 6308 as I write this. We have some pretty strong upward channels on the 10 and 30minute charts though, so I think we may pop up a little bit higher as the momentum is still with the bulls – the 6330 area is an area of resistance on those shorter timeframe charts, with the daily Raffs at around the 6370 area. With the daily pivot at 6282, this area could be a decent long entry, with 6235 below that for a possible swing (hold for a few days) based off the 2 hour chart.