The Asian stock markets are expected to open sharply higher on Friday, following the long-awaited announcement of further stimulus from the Federal Reserve.
The Fed announced a plan to increase policy accommodation by purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at a pace of $40 billion per month.
The Fed also announced the continuation of its "Operation Twist" program, saying that the actions taken together will increase the central bank's holdings of longer-term securities by about $85 billion each month through the end of the year.
Looking ahead, the Fed said it would continue its purchases of mortgage-backed securities until the outlook for the labor market improves substantially.
The major U.S. averages were sharply higher on Thursday as the Dow jumped 206.51 points or 1.6 percent to finish at 13,539.86, while the NASDAQ surged 41.52 points or 1.3 percent to end at 3,155.83 and the S&P 500 soared 23.43 points or 1.6 percent to close at 1,459.99.
The major European markets were mixed on Thursday, ahead of the Fed's announcement. The DAX of Germany fell by 0.45 percent and the CAC 40 of France decreased by 1.18 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. climbed by 0.65 percent and the SMI of Switzerland gained 0.36 percent.
The Asian markets were mixed on Thursday as Malaysia climbed 0.91 percent, while Japan's Nikkei collected 0.39 percent, India added 0.12 percent, Taiwan gathered 0.11 percent, South Korea's KOSPI gained 0.03 percent and Singapore's Straits Times was up 0.02 percent.
Moving lower, China's Shanghai Composite lost 0.76 percent, while Australia shed 0.53 percent, Thailand dipped 0.18 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.14 percent and Indonesia eased 0.08 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
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