Bond yields up, dollar rallies after upbeat Fed statement

Credit: Reuters/Stefan Wermuth

1 of 3. An electronic information board is seen at the London Stock Exchange in the City of London October 11, 2013.

The Fed, as expected, said it will no longer add to its holdings of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities, effectively ending a program that at its peak pumped $85 billion a month into the financial system to hold interest rates down and boost the flagging economy.

The Fed expressed confidence in the U.S. recovery and said it would remain on track despite a slowdown in many parts of the global economy, especially Europe. Specifically, the Fed said, 'underutilization of labor resources is gradually diminishing.'

That sparked a selloff in bond markets, with a sharp move in the benchmark two-year U.S. Treasury note, which saw its yield rise to 0.489 percent, the biggest one-day rise for two-year yields in more than three years. The 10-year Treasury note fell 12/32 in price to yield 2.3246 percent.

'I was pleasantly surprised that they removed the reference to there being significant underutilization of labor resources. I think that is a hat tip to some of the progress being made in the labor market,' said Brian Jacobsen, chief portfolio strategist at Wells Fargo Funds Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.

Major U.S. stock indexes added to declines on the announcement but then pared losses.

'The reaction was to sell (stocks) because it is a bit more optimistic than perhaps many traders were expecting it to be,' said Jacobsen. 'What 'considerable time' (before the next hike) means may have been compressed a little bit.'

The U.S. dollar jumped 0.7 percent against a basket of major currencies .DXY after being down earlier, and rose 0.8 percent against the euro to $1.2639.

MSCI's index .MIWD00000PUS of equities in 45 countries fell 0.14 percent, erasing earlier gains. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of leading companies closed up 0.2 percent ahead of the Fed's announcement.

Better-than-expected U.S. corporate earnings have helped ease global growth concerns. With 245 companies in the S&P 500 having reported third-quarter earnings, 73.5 percent have beat analyst expectations, according to Thomson Reuters. Over the past four quarters, 67 percent of companies have beat estimates.

In Europe about a third of companies listed on the STOXX Europe 600 .STOXX benchmark have reported results so far, with 66 percent beating profit forecasts, Thomson Reuters data show.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI closed down 31.44 points, or 0.18 percent, to 16,974.31, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 2.75 points, or 0.14 percent, to 1,982.3 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 15.07 points, or 0.33 percent, to end at 4,549.23.

Oil traded higher as Brent crude LCOc1 rose 1.1 percent to $86.97 a barrel, around its highest in two weeks. U.S. crude CLc1 rose 0.7 percent to $81.99.

(Additional reporting by Jamie McGeever in London; Editing by James Dalgleish and Nick Zieminski; To read Reuters Global Investing Blog click here; for the MacroScope Blog click on http://ift.tt/18hUYmF; for Hedge Fund Blog Hub click on http://ift.tt/124lrPK)

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