Late rally propels Dow, S&P 500 to slight gains
Wed April 30, 2025 7:06 PM
With Q1 GDP coming in so poorly this morning, all the indexes went deeply into the red, the Dow down some 800 points by 10 a.m. GDP had gone from some 2.5% in Q4 to a -0.5% in Q1, the first contraction in three years. GDP even seriously underperformed the very pessimistic forecast which +0.3% coming in nearly a full percentage point below that. After three years of growth, the markets panicked but at least began an almost immediate recovery despite the fact that only half the number of estimated jobs had been added in April. The good news was that consumer and business spending was up, but this was mostly due to a boost in buying ahead of the tariffs.
The bad news, per today’s expert, was that he “was surprised that the GDP numbers were not even worse.” The good news, “Underneath, however, real final demand remains super strong. Those who underestimate the U.S. consumer do so at their own peril.” The better news is that in the final half hour, there was a rally that pushed all three indexes very close to break-even for the day, except the Dow which closed up 141 points. For the month, the S&P fell just under 1%, the Nasdaq rose just under 1%, and the Dow fell just over 3%, indicating that risk appetite is still on with money continuing to move from safe havens into more volatile equities. Volume came in at 16.9 billion, still well below the 19.6 four-week average.
DJ: 40,527.62 +300.03 NAS: 17,461.32
+95.19 S&P: 5,560.82
+32.07 4/29
DJ: 40,669.36 +141.74 NAS: 17,446.34
-14.98 S&P: 5,569.06
+8.23 4/30
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