Stock market today: World shares are mixed as markets await a rate decision by the Fed
Asian shares have closed mostly higher while European markets opened lower as investors awaited the latest signals from the Federal Reserve on the timing of cuts to interest rates. Oil prices and U.S. futures fell. Japan’s markets were closed for a holiday. The Japanese yen weakened further against the U.S. dollar, despite the Bank of Japan's decision a day earlier to lift its overnight call rate out of negative territory, though just barely. China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged, as expected. British inflation in February came in below expectations and marked its lowest level since September 2021. On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.6% ,the Dow Jones jumped 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.4%.