[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] 1. Moving the Markets Stocks extended their decline today as the Fed began its two-day policy meeting. The general sentiment is that rates are going to be hiked anytime soon, so that potential announcement is fairly well baked into prices throughout the market at this point; that’s the official version. Personally, when looking at the consistently …
Nervous Monday: Markets Retreat
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] 1. Moving the Markets Wall Street was a mess today after the shooting in Florida this past Sunday morning. This unfortunate incident, alongside uncertainty ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s meeting this week and on mounting concern about Britain’s possible exit from the European Union did not equate to a prosperous trading day in the market …
S&P 500 Can’t Break Through; Winning Streak Ends
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] 1. Moving the Markets European and Asian markets were down and so were the US major indexes, at least in the early part of the session. Then the usual afternoon Lift-A-Thon pulled the major indexes up but we still closed slightly below the unchanged line. Well, Wall Street was hoping that the S&P 500 would push …
Energy Component Top Performer For S&P 500
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] 1. Moving the Markets The S&P 500 continued to push towards its all-time high of 2,130.82 today, as the index closed at 2,119.12. Surprising as it may seem, energy has been the main driver for the S&P 500 this year. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index energy sector is up 14.8% to date, which makes it …
Front-running Yellen’s Yodeling
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] 1. Moving the Markets Front-running Fed chief Yellen’s speech was the idea of the day on hopes that Friday’s bad jobs report would be great news for the markets. Forget the Dow today, it was all about the S&P 500 as it set a 2016 closing high in today’s trading, after Fed chair Janet Yellen hinted …
Markets Gain Despite OPEC Turmoil
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] 1. Moving the Markets OPEC and oil were the largest market movers today. Imagine my surprise when news came in during mid-day trading that OPEC was not able to seal a deal on capping oil production. The failure to reach a decision underscores the increasingly conflicted interests within the organization. Two members in particular, Saudi Arabia …