Wall Street rallies after Fed keeps rates unchanged
Wed March 19, 2025 4:23 PM
As the markets more or less got what they wanted from the Fed this afternoon, which was a little more certainty (or less uncertainty), the indexes once again had a good surge, substantial 3-digit gains on both the Dow and Nasdaq, and the S&P had a pretty good day too. The Fed basically restated its previous positions that they expected growth to continue slowing and inflation to continue growing. The good news is that both the contraction in growth and the rise in inflation is forecasted to be moderate and, for this month’s report, both had nudged just a bit. But Powell repeated the complication that it would be difficult to gauge how much Trump’s policies are contributing to inflation and how much is to other long-present factors.
However, that’s not stopping anyone from keeping a very close eye on April 2nd. The better news is that they are now predicting two rate cuts this year, one likely in June for which the odds are now placed at 62%. The best news is, per today’s expert, “if growth continues weakening, the Fed may need to cut rates more forcefully.” Another expert summarized nicely, “The market was primarily looking for anything that reduced the uncertainty, and I think simply that Powell was kind of maintaining the outlook there.” Volume was considerably below the 16.34 billion average, coming in at 13.53 billion.
DJ: 41,581.31 -260.32 NAS: 17,504.12
-304.55 S&P: 5,614.66
-60.46 3/18
DJ: 41,964.63 +383.32 NAS: 17,750.79
+246.67 S&P: 5,675.29
+60.63 3/19
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