Overnight markets: Wall Street rebounds, Bitcoin $76,464, Brent near $102

US stocks recovered on Thursday from the selloff that followed the Federal Reserve's rate rise, with the Dow up about 0.5 per cent, the S&P 500 about 1 per cent and the Nasdaq about 1.3 per cent. The 10-year Treasury yield fell back below 5 per cent to around 4.95 per cent, and oil eased.

The overnight board

The Fed's dot plot is the part worth reading twice. Sixteen of 18 participants expect at least one more increase before the end of 2026, and 10 of them see no cuts at all through 2029. The market that had been pricing an easing cycle is now pricing the opposite.

What Pakistan takes into today's session

The KSE-100 closed Thursday at 169,043, up 1,021 points. A higher-for-longer Fed is a headwind for frontier equities in general, because it makes dollar cash pay more, but the local drivers this week have been domestic: record SBP reserves and a strong large scale manufacturing print.

The rupee closed at 277.51 to the dollar, barely changed from 277.72 the day before. A hawkish Fed is dollar-positive, which usually pushes the rupee the wrong way. The offset is the reserves position, which is the strongest on record, so the State Bank has more room to smooth it than at any point in recent years.

Gold is the one most Pakistani households actually hold. Twenty-four carat closed at Rs 453,436 a tola on Wednesday. Higher real US yields are traditionally bad for gold, and the metal has already come off its recent highs, but the Hormuz conflict keeps a war premium under it. Check the current level on our gold data page and convert between tola and grams with the gold converter.

The read for a saver in Pakistan

A US policy rate approaching 4 per cent with no cuts priced until 2029 does not change what you should do here, because Pakistan's own policy rate is 11.5 per cent and rupee instruments still pay far more in nominal terms.

What it does change is the cost of the dollar you might be holding as insurance. With CPI at 11.1 per cent year on year in August, a rupee deposit paying under that is losing value in real terms too. Run the numbers on the national savings calculator before rolling anything over, and use the currency converter for live rupee crosses.

Crypto remains outside Pakistan's regulated banking channel. Bitcoin's move from $75,766 to $76,464 is noted here as a market fact, not a recommendation.