Stocks fall, Dow drops for 9th straight session with Fed decision due
Tue December 17, 2024 4:24 PM
Even though it’s really quite a foregone conclusion that the Fed will announce a ¼ point rate cut when it meets Wednesday and Thursday, it’s still being described as “standard fare for a pre-Fed day market where you have just a little bit of uncertainty” to hedge bets and pull back a bit. That’s exactly what happened today with all three indexes taking hits, especially in view of what news will come with the Fed’s SEP (Summary of Economic Projections) for more clues on inflation and future rate cuts.
But there was otherwise good news today with retail sales coming in very strong and providing further validation of solid consumer spending and a resilient economy, resilient enough to handle more rate cuts. The Dow continues to lose, today with its 9th straight pullback which hasn’t happened since 1978, which has some market watchers concerned. On the other hand, the Dow did recently reach record highs for which the deficits of late are seen as mere corrections and the other obvious explanation is the flow of funds from industrials to tech as the interest rate environment continues to improve. Despite the Dow being down, the S&P is up 27% and the Nasdaq Monday hit a new record. The VIX has risen above 15, but keep in mind that the markets don’t get nervous until it surpasses 30. Trading was brisk at 16.17 billion, for the second day well surpassing the 14.1 billion average.
DJ: 43,717.48 -110.58 NAS: 20,173.89
+247.17 S&P: 6,074.08
+22.99 12/16
DJ: 43,449.90 -267.58 NAS: 20,109.06
-64.83 S&P: 6,050.61
-23.47 12/17
No comments:
Post a Comment