investingLive Americas FX news wrap 28 Oct: Fed holds rates, yield curve steepens as Big Tech earnings diverge
Vance writes to Iran hard-liner Rezaei to revive talks as Trump weighs new strikes Alphabet Q3: Google Cloud revenue jumps 103% but search and ad sales miss forecasts Microsoft Q1 beats as Azure grows 48% and capex lands $6bn below forecast The before and after.
A look at the changes in forex, rates, stocks through the FOMC decision and press conference.
Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh: More information will help determine appropriate policy steps The full statement from the October 2026 FOMC rate decision FOMC decision Oct 28: Rates left unchanged Iran's Araghchi: Iran continues to give diplomacy a chance to succeed Crude oil extends to a session high of $103.53 as Iran concerns keep buyers in control BOC's Macklem: Our surveys show businesses are planning to pass on more of these cost increases The weekly oil inventory data shows a drawdown of -1.892M vs expectations of a 0.015M build.
The full statement from the Bank of Canada rate decision for October 2026.
Hikes by 25 basis points Bank of Canada rate decision: Hike to 2.50% UK budget: Growth forecasts cut as Healey unveils £15 billion fiscal buffer US Wholesale inventories 0.6% vs 0.5% estimate US September advance goods trade balance -134.9 billion vs -130.2 billion expected Morning Kickstart: Dollar mixed ahead of Fed, BoC and Big Tech earnings investingLive European session wrap: Stocks tread cautiously as Fed decision and big tech earnings loom The Fed left rates unchanged, with Chair Warsh delivering a clear message: Inflation remains too high, but the committee believes policy is starting to work and wants more information before deciding what comes next.
That gave markets room to scale back the urgency of another immediate hike without embracing a move toward rate cuts.
The dollar weakened during the decision and press conference, although its full-day performance remained mixed.
Treasury yields told the more interesting story: the 2-year yield declined while longer yields rose, steepening the curve.
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stocks posted modest gains, while oil remained above $100, but did come off the high that reached $103.55 and gold advanced despite higher longer-term yields.
InvestingLive’s before-and-after Fed comparison highlighted that divergence.
investinglive.com After the closing bell, the focus shifted to earnings.
Microsoft beat expectations, led by strong Azure growth.
Alphabet delivered stronger-than-expected cloud revenue, but earnings, total revenue and several advertising measures fell short.
Microsoft shares are trading higher by 4.31%, while Alphabet are going the other way with tumbling by nearly 10%.
Foreign exchange: Dollar mixed as central-bank differences stand out The dollar ended mixed.
It was strongest against the New Zealand dollar and weakest against the Australian dollar.
EURUSD: 1.1155, +0.30%.
USDJPY: 157.94, unchanged.
GBPUSD: 1.3325, +0.17%.
USDCHF: 0.8282, −0.10%.
USDCAD: 1.3992, −0.40%.
AUDUSD: 0.7055, +0.44%.
NZDUSD: 0.5626, −0.95%.
The EURUSD moved off the double bottom at 1.1113 and has extended to the falling 100 hour MA at 1.11746.
That MA will be the upside target to get to an through along with the 200 hour MA to tilt the short term bias higher.
Absent that, and the sellers are in full control.
The contrast between Australia and New Zealand was particularly clear.
Hotter Australian underlying inflation reinforced expectations for additional RBA tightening.
The price of the AUDUSD is trading above and below the key 200 day MA going into the end of day close at 0.7055.
The RBNZ, meanwhile, unexpectedly held its policy rate at 2.75% in a narrow 4–3 vote, disappointing traders positioned for a hike and weighing on the kiwi.
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Nevertheless, the price of the NZDUSD is off the low and trading near a swing area target betwwen 0.5625 to 0.5633.
The Canadian dollar strengthened alongside a 25-basis-point Bank of Canada rate increase to 2.50% .
The bank warned that inflation was becoming more persistent but said uncertainty warranted proceeding carefully with any additional tightening.
investinglive.com U.S.
Treasuries: Short yields ease, long yields rise The end-of-day readings for the US debt market shows: 2-year: 4.7245%, down 1.25 basis points.
5-year: 4.8657%, up 2.37 basis points.
10-year: 5.0404%, up 4.74 basis points.
30-year: 5.3577%, up 5.27 basis points.
The curve steepened as the front end found some relief from Warsh’s willingness to wait, while longer maturities remained under pressure.
That distinction matters.
Less urgency for another near-term hike does not automatically translate into lower borrowing costs across the economy.
With the 10-year yield above 5% and oil above $100, longer-term rates continued to present a challenge for housing, business financing and equity valuations.
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stocks: Modest gains, with Nasdaq 100 leading The closing levels for the major stocks indices are showing gains across the major benchmarks led by the Nasdaq 100 and the small cap Russell 2000.
Dow industrial average: 52,...