Friends
Dr. Bernanke basically told us today that interest rates will be at zero for the rest of our lives (The Fed announcement actually indicated towards the end of 2014, but who’s counting). The takeaway from today’s Fedspeak was that they anticipate very slow growth, for a very long time (yes we are turning Japanese). In the meantime savers be damned. The yearning for yield will be with us for quite a while.
In the meantime, it was “risk on” once again in the markets as the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed early losses to post a solid 83 point gain, closing at 12,758. The S&P 500 was up more than 11 points to finish the day at 1326. Gold surged after being down early in the day to close up $46 at $1710. Oil moved back up to just shy of $100 also.
By the end of the day, traders began to realize that the only place to make money for quite some time may be in risk assets such as stocks and commodities. We will spend some time tomorrow recapping some of this week’s earnings reports, but for now suffice it to say, the bears were thrown for a loop today as the Fed basically began a psychological if not actual QE 2.5.
We’ll check back with you tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
