What’s likely to move markets in the next trading session on June 18?

All eyes will be on Kevin Warsh as he wraps up his first Federal Open Market Committee meeting today, with markets expecting the Fed to hold interest rates steady.

However, US President Donald Trump is back to his antics when he said that the proposed MoU with Iran to end the Middle East conflict is "not final," and warned that the US could revert to “dropping bombs” if he doesn’t like the deal.

Further, Indian investors will be watching the US markets after the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a fresh all-time intraday record on Wednesday.

US Fed Meeting: The Federal Open Market Committee is set to announce its policy decision this evening, followed by the first press conference of new Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh, as markets await signals on the future interest rate path amid persistent inflation pressures. The FOMC decision is scheduled for 11.30 pm, followed by the press conference at 12 am on June 18.

US-Iran war: President Donald Trump today said that the US will "go right back to dropping bombs" if he doesn’t like the Iran deal. The US President said that the proposed agreement to bring the Middle East conflict to an end, which is set to be formalised at a signing ceremony in Geneva on Friday, is “not final.”

"It’s a memorandum of understanding, and if I don’t like it, we’ll go back to shooting at them, dropping bombs on their heads. I don’t like it if they don’t behave. We’ll go right back to dropping bombs right smack in the middle of their head,” the president said at the summit in Evian, France.

US markets: The Dow Jones Industrial Average traded up 247 points, or 0.5%, after hitting a new high for the third time in a row. The S&P 500 traded up 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.3%.

HFCL secures contract:

Telecom gear maker said it has secured a contract worth approximately

₹2,666.09 crore from Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) for the BharatNet Phase-III project in the Uttar Pradesh (West) Telecom Circle. The contract involves the supply of telecom equipment and related accessories with installation and commissioning, creation of an optical fiber cable telecom network, and maintenance of the project for a period of 10 years, including a one-year warranty period.

United States Initial Jobless Claims: The next release of the United States Initial Jobless Claims will be on Thursday. Last week, US initial jobless claims unexpectedly rose to the highest since February. Initial claims increased by 4,000 to 229,000 in the week ended June 6, according to Labour Department data released Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 220,000 applications.

Bank of England Interest Rate Decision: The Bank of England (BoE) is expected to hold interest rates at its June 18 policy meeting, as policymakers weigh the impact of escalating geopolitical tensions stemming from the Iran war. The central bank is likely to keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 3.75%, despite UK inflation running at 2.8%, above the central bank’s 2% target.