Financial Market News

Worry and speculation have consumed investors since Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke to Congress last month about the Federal Reserve's drive to keep long-term interest rates at record lows.

Major indexes drifted sideways Wednesday morning as traders wondered what the Federal Reserve will say about the U.S. economy and the central bank's huge stimulus program this afternoon.

The central bank wraps up a two-day policy meeting later Wednesday and investors are looking to see if policymakers are moving towards any change in its monetary policy stance.

Federal Reserve policymakers will likely announce on Wednesday that they will keep buying bonds at a monthly pace of $85 billion, while keeping their options open to scale back the program later this year if the U.S. labor market continues to improve.

NEW YORK: US stocks on Tuesday rose decisively as investors bet that the Federal Reserve will stay the course the next day on its economic stimulus policy.

The number of millionaires in the world jumped 9.2% to 12 million last year, in part because of simultaneous strength in the stock, bond and real estate markets, according to a study of the high-net-worth population.

The Toronto stock market was higher Tuesday as traders hope a two day meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve will yield some guidance on the future of the central bank's stimulus measures.

Expectations that the Federal Reserve will keep in place programs meant to prop up the economy also drove the market higher.

Investors look set to push stocks cautiously higher Tuesday in the hope that the Federal Reserve will calm fears about an early end to cheap money.

Asia's biggest benchmark, Japan's Nikkei stock average, shed early gains to fall 0.2 percent by early afternoon, to 13,007.28.

The Toronto stock market closed higher Monday as traders bought into stocks beaten down in a string of recent declines while hoping for more clarity from the U.S. Federal Reserve on whether it might start to ease up on stimulus measures.

Investors are in a game of wait-and-see with the Federal Reserve. On Monday, they guessed that the Fed will continue trying to prop up the economy, and sent stocks higher.

The price of oil climbed to a high for the year Monday amid concerns over an escalation in the civil war in Syria .

Investors started the week with a bout of optimism as they wait for Federal Reserve to provide more clarity about when it may start to cut back on its bond-buying program.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 158 points, or 1 percent, to 15,228 after the first half-hour of trading.

A rescue plan for the Co-operative's troubled banking arm has been unveiled in a bid to plug a A 1.5 billion hole in its balance sheet.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225, the regional heavyweight, jumped 2.2 percent to 12,960.81, extending Friday's 2.4 percent gain.

Since Ben Bernanke unleashed a bombshell on May 22 by suggesting the U.S. Federal Reserve could before long start to pull back on its massive monetary stimulus, big stock and bond markets have been feeling the pain.

Abenomics' massive monetary stimulus was supposed to depress long-term interest rates to spur economic activity, but the Japanese government bond market has other ideas.

TMB Bank is focusing more on underwriting issues of baht-denominated bonds for foreign sovereigns and corporates as it foresees potential for the Thai market to be the centre of fund mobilisation for the CMLV countries .