Friends
Stocks lingered in negative territory for the entire trading session as the day to day wild gyrations that we have seen here in March continue. While market participants wait for the FOMC statement and the Chair’s press conference tomorrow, the economic data continues to wither. It will be interesting to see if the Fed is determined to prepare the markets for an interest rate increase, or will they back off a bit and blame data points for their delay?
As for today’s move, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 128 points to finish the day at 17,849. The S&P 500 was down 7 points to close at 2074. Gold was down $5 to trade at $1147 per ounce, while oil was down $.79 to trade at $43.09 per barrel WTI.
The key phrase/word that Fed watchers are looking for tomorrow is “patience”. The feeling is, that if that word is removed from the FOMC statement, then that will signal that the Fed is ready to begin raising rates sooner than later, perhaps August or maybe even June. Whatever the case, it will be interesting to see how the markets react to whatever the news is. It is really difficult right now to determine what is baked into the markets already and what is not. We will see.
Have a nice evening everyone.
