[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US equities finished lower for a second straight day as a weak regional manufacturing report weighed on investor sentiment while concern mounted that the US Federal Reserve will scale back the pace of stimulus. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s index fell to minus 12.5 in February, the lowest since June, from minus 5.8 the month …
Stocks Hit A Slippery Slope After Fed Minutes
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US stocks turned sharply lower Wednesday, falling from five-year highs after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting showed the central bank may scale back its bond buying program. In other words, the odds have increased that the spiked punch bowl will be watered down. The Fed’s Open Market Committee had said the central bank would continue buying …
US Indexes Hit Fresh Five-Year Highs; European Stocks Rally As German Sentiment Improves
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US stocks finished higher Tuesday, sending the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 to new five-year highs, buoyed by a rise in corporate deal making and an improvement in German investor sentiment. OfficeMax Inc vaulted 21 percent while Office Depot Inc jumped 9.4 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported Monday (a market holiday) that the companies were in …
Stocks Barely Move On European Concern; Recession Weighs On Europe
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US stocks barely budged after another day of low volume trading as shrinking economies in Europe and Japan overshadowed better-than-expected jobless claims on a banner day for M&A deals. The US jobless claims fell by 27,000, the most in a month, to 341,000 in the week ended Feb 9, a Labor Department report showed; that is …
Equities Rally On Buyout Hopes; Europe Bounces Back On Data
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] US stocks rebounded Tuesday to recoup much of the previous day’s biggest loss of the year for benchmark indexes as investors found confidence in robust corporate earnings and PC-maker Dell Inc’s decision to go private in the biggest leveraged buyout deal since the financial crisis. Shares found some support in today’s economic data. The Institute for …
Major Market Indexes Lose Face-Off with Gravity; Europe Dives
[Chart courtesy of MarketWatch.com] I did not think it was possible that the markets were actually able to lose a face-off with gravity after their relentless and almost uninterrupted ascent since mid-November. Even the by now well documented afternoon “lift-a-thon” was notably absent, as the major market indexes took their cue from Europe and produced their worst loss of this …