An aerial view of Singapore’s skyline.
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Spot gold prices rose to a new record on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at its target range of 3.5% to 3.75% overnight.
Bullion rose more than 3%, topping the $5,500 per ounce level for the first time.
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on Thursday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.69%.
Japanese Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.18%, while TOPIX fell 0.57%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.09%, and the small-cap Kosdaq rose 2.69%.
Shares of Samsung Electronics rose 1.6% after the company said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit more than tripled to a new record and beat expectations on the back of a memory chip shortage and strong demand for artificial intelligence servers.
Hong Kong Hang Seng Index futures stood at 27,565, below the HSI’s closing price of 27,826.91.
Investors will be keeping an eye on Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite Stock Price. The index plunged more than 8% on Wednesday after index provider MSCI issued a statement warning that the country could be downgraded to frontier market status.
Goldman Sachs has downgraded Indonesia to underweight on expectations for further passive selling, the investment bank said in a note published on Thursday. The bank’s strategists also viewed the development as an “overhang that hinders market performance.”
In the United States, the S&P 500 reached a milestone overnight, reaching 7,000 for the first time, but fell after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged and raised its economic growth assessment.
The broader market index ended the day down 0.01% at 6,978.03. Earlier, the S&P 500 index rose 0.3% on the day to hit an intraday high of 7,002.28.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.02% to close at 49,015.60. The Nasdaq Composite Index outperformed, rising 0.17% to settle at 23,857.45.
U.S. Treasury yields rose in response to the Fed’s decision, as the central bank’s statement said economic activity was “expanding at a steady pace” and the unemployment rate was “showing signs of stabilizing.”
“I think, and many of my colleagues do, that it’s hard to say, looking at the data that’s coming out, that policy is going to be significantly restrictive at this point,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference.
—CNBC’s Sean Conlon and Pia Singh contributed to this report.
