Wall Street closes out weak February as Fed concerns remain

Both the S&P and Nasdaq were having an okay day until 2 pm when it all went south. The Dow didn’t fare as well, being south all day some hundred points again, like the others, until 2 pm, when it too went crashing further down. Per today’s expert, “The market in many ways expected things to go south more quickly, forcing the Fed to pivot, or pause, or cut rates sooner than the Fed was saying.”  In other words, the economy continues to do too well which does not bode well for easing up on rates.  

Stocks close slightly up after prior week's selloff

The markets all got started with a big bang, the Dow up almost 400 points at 10 a.m., as Treasury yields eased off. But then the yields started steadily climbing again and the indexes all started steadily falling again with all closing with modest gains but nowhere near the morning highs. As always, the sell off was attributed to fears over rate hikes with today’s expert, “is a 50-basis point hike really on the table; it’s led to a good deal of uncertainty.” Traders have priced in 3 more ¼ pt. hikes this year and a new peak rate at 5.4%, up from 5.35 last week. The good news is that new orders have picked up and business spending on equipment increasing. As has been the trend, volume remains below average at 9.9 billion. 

10 Best Growth Stocks to Buy for 2023

Continuing on the weekend themes of top stock recommendations, here's another list of suggestions.  

Bill Gates Portfolio: 7 Best Stocks to Buy Now

And yet another of the world's most successful billionaires with portfolios well worth examining.  

Wall St ends sharply down, posts biggest weekly drop of 2023

All the indexes were deeply in the red all day, the Dow starting some 500 points down and didn’t really improve a lot all day, rising a bit late in session to close 336 down.  It again boils down to fear over continued rate hikes, today’s dive attributed to both a CPI report, considered the Fed’s main barometer, showing a 0.6% gain in prices in January vs 0.2% in December.  This combined with more hawkish comments from the Fed that rates should go higher than necessary to meet the inflation target, which the futures traders have now raised to a possible 5.5%  vs the prior 5.35%.  Volume remains below average at 10.3 billion. 

Wall St finishes topsy-turvy day higher, S&P snaps losing run

It was a seesaw day for the whole market with all the indexes in the black in the morning, then dipping big time into losses for most of the rest of the session only to recover after 2 pm and closing in the black.  The Dow opened up some 250 points and almost immediately began a decline losing some 500 points by noon where it stayed until 2 pm, then recovered to a 108 point gain at close.  

S&P ends down as Fed minutes fail to halt losing run

The news from the Fed minutes contained no surprises and more reassurances that most officials agreed to slow rate increases to ¼ point until inflation was under control.  This was enough good news to lift all the indexes for most of the day, the Dow being up some 120 points until 2 pm when everything went on the decline again with both the Dow and S&P ending modestly down, the Nasdaq modestly up. But though the news was mostly positive, it was yet another nail in the coffin that the rate hiking campaign would continue despite recession risks.  Volume remained below average at 10.58 billion.