Friends
As expected, the Federal Reserve did not raise interest rates today. The FOMC is more confident now that their inflation target will be met, but it is clear that the members want to see what fiscal policies will be coming from Washington DC before committing to a time frame for this years expected rate hikes. The non-farm payroll number doesn’t come out until Friday, but today’s ADP private payroll number was way better than expected. It will be interesting to see if that translates to the government number on Friday.
As for stocks, with the help of a rise in Apple shares after a nice earnings report released after the close yesterday, the market averages spent most of the day in positive territory with some exception midday. But by the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 26 points to finish the day at 19,890. The S&P 500 was up a fraction to close at 2,279. Gold was down $1 to trade at $1,210 per ounce, while oil was up $.73 to trade at $53.54 per barrel WTI.
So far this earnings season, bottom line profits have seen a 7% increase overall, while top line revenues have increased 4% overall. That, at least, is heading in the right direction, though one could argue that the sloppiness in stock price action recently can be attributed to somewhat lofty valuations heading into this earnings season. Let’s see how the rest of the week goes.
Have a nice evening everyone.
