Friends
Fed Chair Powell basically did a pirouette in the endzone while spiking the football this afternoon. As expected, the Fed kept interest rates the same today but more importantly signaled that rate hikes are a thing of the past and rate cuts are in our future. Yes, the pivot occurred today. The markets have been front running the pivot for a while now, but the bulls still did their own celebratory dance nevertheless after today’s Fed announcement. Who can blame them? The bears roared all year the gloom and doom story, that never developed.
Stocks soared higher. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 512 points to close at 37,090. The S&P 500 was up 63 points to finish the day at 4,707. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 200 points to close at 14,733. Gold was up $41 to trade at $2,034 while oil was up $1.09 to trade at $69.70 per barrel WTI.
So basically, the Fed was able to raise interest rates for more than a year from zero to 5.25 to 5.50% and unemployment didn’t rise, and a recession did not develop in 2023. The bulls have a right to celebrate today. Is it wrong that when everything actually looks this good I start to worry a little? It does appear that we are pricing all the good news in all at once. Ok, I’ll stop. Let’s enjoy the good news.
Have a nice evening everyone.
