Friends
The markets were pleased with Jay Powell’s somewhat dovish comments this morning at Jackson Hole. The odds/hopes for a September rate cut moved much higher and market participants celebrated by buying stocks. The market averages did trade off their highs for the day but in the end the bulls were still dancing in the streets.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 846 points to finish the day at 45,631. The S&P 500 was up 96 points to close at 6,466. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 396 points to close at 21,496. Gold was up $33 to trade at $3,415 per ounce, while oil was up $.27 to trade at $63.79 per barrel WTI.
Investors had been cautious all week as they braced for the Fed Chair’s comments. The pent-up demand/excitement was unleashed by one simple sentence, “with policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance”. Now that’s certainly not a guarantee that the Fed will cut rates in September, but market participants were convinced that it was close enough. Anyway, it was a good day for the bulls after what had been a sloppy week of trading. We’ll marinate a few ice cubes and be back at it on Monday.
Have a great weekend everyone.
