Wall St ends higher as Fed minutes, jobs data firm rate-cut hopes
By Stephen Culp
Wed August 21, 2024 4:26 PM
It was another day of serious volatility with all the indexes swinging back and forth several times between red and black but at least the tech indexes, though still wild, were at least mostly in the black. The Dow didn’t do as well, weighed down by the financial sector, swung between a 100-point loss and a 140-point gain. Still, all closed with gains. Today’s main trigger was the Labor Dept downward revision of last month’s payroll, down a very big 800K, which stoked optimism of a softening labor market and consequent rate cuts.
But the overall sentiment remains “wait-and-see,” reflected in the still way below average volume 9.8 billion vs a 12.1 billion average. Wait and see what happens at Jackson Hole, whether there’s going to be a September rate cut, and waiting for this seasonal volatility to settle – all very good reasons for both bulls and bears to stay on the sidelines for now.
DJ: 40,834.97 -61.56 NAS: 17,816.94 -59.83 S&P: 5,597.12 -11.13 8/20
DJ: 40,890.49 +55.52 NAS: 17,918.99 +102.05 S&P: 5,620.85 +23.73 8/21
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