
- Moving the markets
An early market dump received an unexpected assist, which turned into a big intraday comeback. Unlike yesterday, when Fed head Powell uttered some soothing remarks to pull equities out of a deep hole, today, the torch was passed.
It was none other than Fed Gov Lael Brainard who took center stage first and voiced this dovish comment:
“The economy remains far from our goals in terms of both employment and inflation, and it will take some time to achieve substantial further progress.”
This was followed by Powell’s semi-annual testimony, which was market friendly and contained no surprises, after which stocks and bonds went on a rampage.
Yes, that was all it took for the markets to change direction and shift into high gear with all 3 major indexes soaring, led by the Dow. Even the Nasdaq and SmallCaps (IWO), which have struggled as of late, catapulted higher by +0.99% and +2.10%.
Rising bond yields also shifted in reverse with the 30-year dropping 5 basis points from intraday highs while the 10-year performed similar magic. For sure, had it not been for the “rescue operations” by the above Fed Gov/Powell team, we might have seen an ugly sell off.
The US Dollar could not make up its mind and simply roundtripped, thereby pushing Gold around, however, the precious metal did not gain anything yet managed to hang on to its $1,800 level.
This day leaves me pondering “who will save the markets tomorrow?”
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