World Shares Mixed, US Futures Gain Ahead Of Fed Statement

World markets were mixed ahead of the Federal Reserves policy announcement on Wednesday while U.S. futures edged higher.

Benchmarks rose modestly in Frankfurt and Tokyo but slipped in London and Hong Kong.

Investors are awaiting the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting later Wednesday. It is expected to keep the benchmark rate at nearly zero for some time to help the economy recover from the pandemic downturn.

The U.S. central bank’s statement might change some of the language around its existing pledge to buy bonds to support markets, economists say.

Japans central bank has begun a policy meeting that will wrap up Thursday but also is not expected to result in any major changes.

Germany’s DAX was less than 0.1% higher at 13,223.43 while the CAC 40 in France was flat, at 5,067.95. The FTSE 100 in Britain edged 0.1% lower to 6,101.31. The futures for the S&P 500 and for the Dow industrials both gained 0.2%.

Japan reported that its trade balance swung into surplus in August as a 15% decline in exports from a year earlier was outpaced by a 21% drop in imports. Exports have been hammered by the coronavirus pandemic but the rate of decline has been narrowing over the past several months as shutdowns eased and the Chinese economy began to recover from a sharp downturn in early spring.

Japan’s long-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, resigned as of Wednesday and was replaced by his chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga. Suga has said he intends to push ahead with Abe’s policies and little change is expected for the world’s third-largest economy.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 edged 0.1% higher to 23,475.53 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was almost unchanged at 24,725.63. South Korea’s Kospi gave up 0.3% to 2,435.92 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Sydney jumped 1% to 5,956.10. The Shanghai Composite index slipped 0.4% to 3,283.92.

India’s Sensex edged 0.4% higher to 39,182.12 even as the number of the country’s confirmed coronavirus cases jumped to nearly 5 million, second only to the U.S. case count of 6.6 million, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The actual number of cases is thought to be much higher.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 3,401.20 after gaining more than 1% earlier in the session, its second straight sizable gain following the benchmark’ index’s worst week since June.

Big Tech stocks have been bouncing back this week after suddenly losing altitude earlier this month amid worries that their prices had climbed too high.

Analysts expect more volatility for stocks in the months ahead as the market navigates uncertainty over the outcome of the election, pessimism that Democrats and Republicans in Washington will be able to reach a deal to send more aid to unemployed workers and an economy still struggling amid the pandemic.

Treasury yields were relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury was unchanged at 0.67%.

In other trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil rose 87 cents to $38.15 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It surged $1.02 on Tuesday to $38.28 per barrel.

Brent crude, the international standard, picked up 82 cents to $41.35 per barrel.

The dollar fell to 105.21 Japanese yen from 105.43 yen late Tuesday. The euro climbed to $1.1865 from $1.1848.

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Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday participants were showing mild-to-moderate side effects when given either the company’s experimental coronavirus vaccine or a placebo in an ongoing late-stage study.

Over 12,000 study participants had received a second dose of the vaccine, Pfizer executives said on an investor conference call.

The company has enrolled more than 29,000 people in its 44,000-volunteer trial to test the experimental COVID-19 vaccine it is developing with German partner BioNTech.

Pfizer said it was continuously scrutinizing the safety and tolerability of the vaccine in its study.

An independent data monitoring committee could recommend pausing the study at any time, but has not done so till date, the company said.

The comments follow rival AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine trials being put on hold worldwide on Sept. 6 after a serious side effect was reported in a volunteer in Britain.

AstraZeneca’s trials resumed in Britain and Brazil on Monday following the green light from British regulators, but remain on hold in the United States.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday described as "insidious" and "rabid" efforts to target a particular community through TV shows.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and KM Joseph expressed deep concern on use of power and reach of electronic media to attack a particular community as it heard a petition against a TV show by a private channel on the entry of Muslims in civil services.

"As the Supreme Court of this nation, we can't allow you to say that Muslims are infiltrating civil services. We can't tolerate this. No one can say journalists have absolute freedom to say anything," observed the bench as it issued an interim order on staying the telecast of subsequent episodes of the programme.

The court restrained Sudarshan TV from telecasting two episodes of 'Bindas Bol' programme, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, saying it prime facie appears to vilify the Muslim community.

The bench was emphatic that such programmes that tend to show a particular community in bad light cannot go without scrutiny just by claiming the right to free speech and free press.

The court called out the channel, saying it might be doing a disservice to the nation by not accepting India is a melting point of diverse culture. "Your client needs to exercise his freedom with caution," the bench told senior lawyer Shyam Divan who was appearing for the channel.

"It appears to the court that object of the programme is to vilify the Muslim community and make it responsible for an insidious attempt to infiltrate the civil services. We are duty bound to ensure adherence to the program code formed under Cable TV Act," said the bench in its order. It added that the edifice of a stable democratic society and observance of constitutional rights and duties is based on coexistence of communities. "Any attempt to vilify a community must be viewed with disfavour," it said.

The court was of the view that electronic media, because of its huge access, can become a focal point for destabilising the nation by targeting particular communities, and so certain standards should guide them.

"Reputations can be damaged, images can be tarnished. How to control this? State cannot do this. This is a very difficult area of regulation undoubtedly, but we are trying to spread a wider auspice of dialogue. Look at this program Solicitor, how rabid can it get? Targeting a community who are appearing for Civil services," Justice Chandrachud asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

On his part, Justice KM Joseph said, "We need to look at the ownership of the visual media. Entire shareholding pattern of the company must be on site for the public. Revenue model of that company should also be put up to check if the government is putting more ads in one and less in another."

But Mehta objected to the idea of external regulations on the media. "Freedom of the journalist is supreme. There are two aspects of the statements by Justice Joseph. It would be disastrous for any democracy to control the press. There is also a parallel media other than electronic media where a laptop and a journalist can lead to lakhs of people viewing their content. There are a large number of web portals whose ownership is different from what they show," he pointed out.

The law officer also cited an illustration of YouTube, saying how it will be possible to either regulate this platform or question its revenue model.

The bench retorted that it should not be wary of regulating one thing just because it cannot regulate anything. "Fair comment and equivalent duty of the right to a fair response…Journalists must be governed by certain principles," it stressed.

The court observed it is inclined to have a committee of five distinguished individuals of commendable stature to suggest certain principles to guide the electronic media. The matter will be heard next on September 17.

Chinese COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by November: Top scientist

The top scientists also talked about the smooth progress of several vaccine candidates that are in clinical trials

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