Market Brief, North America

Financial markets are back in recovery mode and Nasdaq is coming off its best day in six months as growing evidence of a “Fed put” boosts risk appetite. Index futures are pointing to further gains, Treasury yields are down across the curve, and the dollar is losing altitude after Federal Reserve officials expressed deepening concern about labour market softness, prompting a recovery in technology stocks and encouraging investors to set aside—at least for now—worries about stretched valuations. Markets are pricing in a nearly 80-percent chance of a December rate cut—up from less than 30 percent only a week ago—after New...

The dollar is slipping from its highs, Treasury yields are inching lower, and stock market indices are retrenching as investors trim exposures to the technology sector amid an ongoing retreat from speculative asset classes. With US markets closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday and likely thinly-populated on Black Friday, traders are working to compress position adjustments into the first three days of the week, and price action is accelerating across the foreign exchange markets, extending a broader rise in measures of implied volatility. Expectations for a cut at the Federal Reserve’s December meeting jumped spectacularly on Friday morning, weakening the...