STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Tuesday, 28 October 2014

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30. GLOBAL STOCKS MOSTLY HIGHER AS FED MEETING AWAITED

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KEEPING SCORE: In morning trading, Germany's DAX jumped 1.4 percent to 9,023.80 and France's CAC-40 added 0.3 percent to 4,110.63. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.4 percent to 6,389.96. European benchmarks had tumbled Monday after regulators warned some banks needed to raise extra capital. Wall Street looked set to rebound from Monday's small losses, with futures for the Standard & Poor's 500 up 0.5 percent. Dow Jones industrial average futures were up 0.4 percent.

FED WATCH: Investors looked ahead to Wednesday's monthly policy announcement by the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee, for signs about a possible timeline for interest rate hikes. The Fed is winding down its $4 trillion bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing. That is heightening concern about whether the U.S. economy is strong enough to sustain growth without that support.

THE QUOTE: "The main block of U.S. earnings season is now in its final week and Wednesday night's FOMC meeting looms large in the market's psyche," said strategist Evan Lucas of IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia. "With the end of the asset purchase program a foregone conclusion, speculation is once again mounting about the movement of interest rates."

ASIA'S DAY: China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.1 percent to 2,337.87 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.6 percent to 23,520.36. India's Sensex was up 0.4 percent to 26,867.02. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 bucked the trend, falling 0.4 percent to 15,329.91 despite strong retail sales data. Seoul and Sydney also declined.

JAPANESE CONSUMERS: Retail sales rose by a robust 2.7 percent in September after a 1.9 percent gain in August. That suggested spending was recovering from a slump that followed an increase to Japan's sales tax in April. Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics warned wages have to grow faster to support a further rise in spending but said that was unlikely to happen.