Weekly Stock Market Update & SPY Technical Analysis The S&P 500 reaching a record 7,000 seems like a long shot at this point as markets head into the final full week of the year. Over the past few weeks and leading up to this point, delayed economic reports shed light on key data that went missing during the government shutdown, including critical inflation and unemployment statistics. Investors were hoping the data would carry markets higher, but skepticism around the validity of the data kept buyers at bay along with other factors. The data: Labor market - Fed Chair Powell’s exact words were that we’re in a “slow hire, slow fire” job market, where companies aren’t hiring much. The reason? Some...
Weekly Stock Market Update & SPY Technical Analysis Optimism grew in markets last week as positive headlines boosted confidence again, but a change of market leadership seems to be underway as investors make end of year adjustments. Leading up to last week’s interest rate decision, investors were highly uncertain whether or not the U.S. central bank would proceed with another rate cut or not. The uncertainty was a result of the government shutdown, which paused all economic data for September and part of October. Without knowing inflation and labor market data, there was no way to tell if a rate cut was appropriate. The Fed did cut rates by 25 BPS, which was followed by a press conference from Fed...
Weekly Stock Market Update & SPY Technical Analysis It’s been a quiet month for the market so far, but this week may bring on some fireworks as The Federal Reserve decides on interest rates. Probabilities of another interest rate cut this year have been violently swinging back and forth for weeks, and after a series of new economic data, odds of a rate cut are sitting at 86.2% at this time of this writing. The Fed doesn’t usually like to “surprise” investors so the chances are they’ll follow through with a quarter point cut as widely expected. What does this mean for us? Understanding the WHY behind the rate cut is crucial. The move to swiftly cut rates stems from...
Weekly Stock Market Update & SPY Technical Analysis Markets roared back last week as traders bet on a holiday rally fueled by optimism around an interest rate cut in December. According to CME Group, the chances of a rate cut have surged to 86.4% following the most updated economic data, which is seen favorable by markets to fuel business and consumer spending. The Federal Reserve meeting and rate decision aren’t scheduled until December 10th, so until then, our focus will be on further economic data. For this week in specific, here are the key reports we’re watching: S&P final U.S. manufacturing PMI (Mon) ADP employment data (Wed) Initial jobless claims (Thu) U.S. trade deficit (Thu) PCE index / inflation data...
Weekly Stock Market Update & SPY Technical Analysis The AI boom continued to face scrutiny last week as many tout technology stocks’ valuations and question whether or not AI spending will actually pay off. Markets closed the week lower, with high growth technology stocks leading the way down, extending the sell-off that started weeks ago. Were Nvidia’s earnings not enough?Nvidia’s earnings report was certainly enough to spark some confidence back in markets, but shortly after the report’s bullish influence, investors began to take profits as other worries surfaced (We’ll get to those in a bit). But as for Nvidia, the company reported record revenue of $57 billion for the quarter, marking a 62.5% increase from the same period last year....
