S&P 500 notches closing record with focus on Trump comments, earnings
By Sinéad Carew and Johann M Cherian
Fri January 23, 2025 4:53 PM
Trump’s comments today demanding that OPEC lower oil prices and that the Fed continue more rate cuts injected a megadose of optimism into the markets shooting the Dow up to a mid-3-digit gain and the S&P to another record high. This is contrasted however with the announcement of 25% tariffs going into effect February 1 on Canada, Mexico and China. Since we get so much of our oil comes from Canada, how investors think the price of oil is coming down falls somewhere in the realm of wishful thinking.
This also applies to rate cuts since it is almost certain that the Fed will ignore these comments reiterating the position that cuts will come from data, not from presidential pronouncements. But today’s expert said it, “investors like the idea of interest rates coming down, of oil coming down. We’re just seeing a reflection of that optimism.” That optimism has dominated the day’s market action and at least for the moment putting concerns about inflation due to the tariffs on the back burner, but not so much that the rate dependent tech-driven Nasdaq didn’t suffer. Obviously, energy stocks had a good day and jobless claims remaining steady fortified the strong job market. Volume remains below the 14.8 billion average, coming in today at 13.5 billion.
DJ: 44,156.73 +130.92 NAS: 20,009.34
+252.56 S&P: 6,086.37
+37.13 1/22
DJ: 44,565.07 +408.34 NAS: 20,053.68
+44.34 S&P: 6,118.71
+32.34 1/23
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