Friends
It appears that all Fed Chair Powell had to do was give the Fed a little leeway with regards to future rate hikes, and the bulls would run again. In his presentation to the Economic Club of New York, the Fed Chair delivered the slightly more dovish view of rate hikes and stocks rocketed higher. The Fed chair allowed that they will be watching for signs of slow down and economic data will play into rate hike decisions, not just dogma, and that perhaps we are closer to neutral than the market was believing. We were impressed by yesterday’s late action, so today’s rise in stocks adds to what is a fine week for the bulls so far.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 617 points to finish the day at 25,366. The S&P 500 was up 61 points to close at 2,743. Gold was up $7 to trade at $1,220 per ounce, while oil was down $1.25 to trade at $50.31 per barrel WTI.
Today’s second look at 3rd quarter GDP was unrevised remaining at 3.5% growth for the quarter. New home sales were once again disappointing for October, but mortgage applications did rise for the week on November 23rd with a dip in mortgage rates fueling the surge. We get weekly jobless claims and pending home sales numbers tomorrow. As for today, the bulls might be gaining a little confidence, spurred on by the Fed Chairman’s speech. Let’s see if they can carry the ball for the rest of the week.
Have a nice evening everyone.
