Market update: Global shares hover near recent highs but all eyes are on Bernanke’s testimony today – 22.05.2013

Source: Henderson Global Investors

Wall Street stocks moved higher into record territory on Tuesday after comments from two Federal Reserve (Fed) officials raised hopes that the central bank will continue to pump money into the financial system. The much-awaited Fed chairman Ben Bernanke’s testimony to the Congress, due to start today at 3:00pm London time, should shed light on the Fed’s policy stance. Both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices closed at new all-time highs of 15,387.6 and 1,669.2, up 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. Health care, consumer discretionary and financials were among the top performing sectors.

Another central bank in focus today was the Bank of Japan (BoJ), which concluded its two-day meeting overnight in Asia. While maintaining monetary easing plans the BoJ also raised its economic outlook. This helped the Nikkei climb 1.6% to another record high. While markets are stable in Europe this morning, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.3%, and the FTSE 100 had shed 0.2% at the time of writing. Trading activity seems to be somewhat muted in anticipation of the Fed speech, a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels, and the release of both the Fed and Bank of England’s latest meeting minutes later today.