{"id":81482,"date":"2026-06-18T16:41:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/?p=81482"},"modified":"2026-06-18T16:41:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:41:46","slug":"thursday-18th-june-2026-asian-markets-hit-records-while-fed-keeps-rates-unchanged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/thursday-18th-june-2026-asian-markets-hit-records-while-fed-keeps-rates-unchanged\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday 18th June 2026: Asian Markets Hit Records While Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br \/><br \/>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a0Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 1.82%, Shanghai Composite down 0.25% Hang Seng down 1.08% ASX down 0.40%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Commodities : Gold at $4,338.87 (-1.13%) Silver at $69.080 (-2.09%), Brent Oil at $78.72 (-2.30%), WTI Oil at $75.11 (-2.41%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rates : US 10-year yield at 4.439, UK 10-year yield at 4.7575, Germany 10-year yield at 2.9260<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>(USD) Federal Funds Rate 3.75%\u00a0 to 3.75%\u00a0 expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Markets Update:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>U.S. stock futures moved higher early Thursday after the Federal Reserve signaled that interest rate hikes remain possible. S&amp;P 500 futures gained 0.83%, Nasdaq 100 futures rose 1.32%, and Dow futures advanced more than 280 points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asian markets were mixed but largely positive. South Korea\u2019s Kospi surged over 1% to a record 9,000, supported by gains in SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics. Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 climbed nearly 1.8%, crossing the 71,000 mark for the first time, while the Topix also posted strong gains. In contrast, Australia\u2019s S&amp;P\/ASX 200 declined 0.29%, Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng fell 0.76%, and China\u2019s CSI 300 remained flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At its first policy meeting under Fed Chair Kevin Warsh, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged at 3.5%\u20133.75%. However, policymakers\u2019 updated projections suggested rates could rise in 2026, with the median year-end forecast increasing to 3.8% from 3.4% in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Markets reacted negatively to the Fed\u2019s hawkish stance. The Dow fell 507 points after touching a record intraday high, while the S&amp;P 500 and Nasdaq lost 1.21% and 1.34%, respectively. Treasury yields also moved higher, with the two-year yield reaching 4.22%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Upcoming Events:<br \/><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>11:00 AM GMT &#8211; GBP Official Bank rate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: News &amp; Data: Markets Update: U.S. stock futures moved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":79441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fundamental-analysis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81484,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81482\/revisions\/81484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}