LONDON/SYDNEY: Stock markets were routed and the dollar stumbled on Monday after the Federal Reserve slashed U.S. interest rates in an emergency move and its major peers offered cheap U.S. dollars in a bid to prevent global lending markets seizing up.
The Fed's emergency 100 basis point rate cut on Sunday was followed on Monday by further policy easing from the Bank of Japan in the form of a pledge to ramp up purchases of exchange-traded funds and other risky assets.New Zealand's central bank also shocked by cutting rates 75 basis points to 0.25per cent, while the Reserve Bank of Australia pumped more money into its financial system. South Korea cut rates and Russia rushed together a US$4 billion anti-crisis fund.
In Asia, Shanghai blue chips fell 3per cent overnight even as China's central bank surprised with a fresh round of liquidity injections into the financial system. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 3.4per cent. Sheets emphasized investors wanted to see a lot more U.S. fiscal stimulus and evidence the Trump administration was responding vigorously and effectively to the public health challenges posed by the crisis.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been haranguing the Fed to ease policy, called the move"terrific" and"very good news".
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