US FED strikes dovish tone

Markets rallied overnight on comments from US Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell whom suggested, for the first time, that US interest rates were close to their neutral level. The neutral level is seen by many as the level of interest which neither hinders or helps US economic growth. Markets took this news as an indication the FED would be curbing the number of future interest rate hikes planned for 2019 and 2020. The news spiked the S&P 500 up by over 2% for the day and has European futures pointing higher in pre-trading.