Friends
A heavily anticipated and much watched interview with Fed Chair Jerome Powell seemed to deliver what the bulls were looking for. Basically, the Fed Chair, despite last Friday’s explosive jobs number, stayed the course hinting that we’ll likely only see a couple more quarter point rate hikes in the Fed Funds rate. The inflation fight, while far from finished, does look like it is heading in the right direction, but the Fed Chair still insist that the Fed is likely to stay higher for longer. We will see.
After some back and forth, stocks moved higher into the close. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 265 points to close at 34,156. The S&P 500 was up 52 points to finish the day at 4,164. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 226 points to close at 12,113. Gold was up $2 to trade at $1,882 per ounce, while oil was up $3.18 to trade at $77.29 per barrel WTI.
The bulls continue to find good in whatever is thrown their way so far this year. Earnings sure haven’t been great, but evidently, they have been good enough. And the Fed certainly hasn’t pivoted, but evidently the Fed has become less hawkish enough to satisfy the bulls. It’s been a strange beginning to 2023, but a good one for the bulls. Let’s see if they can keep things rolling as the rest of the week unfolds.
Have a nice evening everyone.
