{"id":432373,"date":"2026-06-18T15:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T08:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/2026\/06\/thursday-18th-june-2026-asian-markets-hit-records-while-fed-keeps-rates-unchanged\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T15:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T08:00:07","slug":"thursday-18th-june-2026-asian-markets-hit-records-while-fed-keeps-rates-unchanged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/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":"<div>\n<h3>\n<p>Global Markets:<\/h3>\n<ul>\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<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<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<h3>News &amp; Data:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>(USD) Federal Funds Rate 3.75%\u00a0 to 3.75%\u00a0 expected<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Markets Update:<\/h3>\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<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<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<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<h3>Upcoming Events:<br \/><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>11:00 AM GMT \u2013 GBP Official Bank rate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\/thursday-18th-june-2026-asian-markets-hit-records-while-fed-keeps-rates-unchanged\/\">Thursday 18th June 2026: Asian Markets Hit Records While Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged<\/a> first appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.icmarkets.com\/blog\">IC Your Trading Edge | Official Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Global Markets: \u00a0Asian Stock Markets : Nikkei up 1.82%, Shanghai Composite down 0.25% Hang Seng down 1.08% ASX down 0.40% Commodities : Gold at $4,338.87 (-1.13%) Silver at $69.080 (-2.09%), Brent Oil&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}