Stronger Manufacturing Lifts Market – The FED Has Started Tightening! February 18, 2010
Posted by Marlowe Cassetti in Blogroll.trackback
An increase in regional manufacturing pushed the stock market to its third straight advance and offset concerns about lower sales at Wal-Mart.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 84 points, bringing its gains for the week to nearly 300 points. It’s the best streak for the Dow since November.
Stock futures turned lower after the closing bell Thursday when the Federal Reserve announced it was hiking the interest rate that it charges banks for emergency loans. The move doesn’t change consumer borrowing rates, but the notion that policymakers would start to reel in some of the emergency economic supports put in place since 2007 spooked investors.
Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 0.6 percent. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures lost 0.8 percent, while Nasdaq 100 index futures fell 0.7 percent.
The gain in stocks Thursday came after the Philadelphia Federal Reserve said its index of regional manufacturing rose to 17.6 in February from 15.2 in January. That follows reports the past two days that also pointed to a pickup in business at the nation’s factories.(commentary & photo courtesy of AP)
The FED tightening will throw a wet blanket over the current market rally. How much will it dampen investor enthusiasm? We will know in the next few days. Watch out as the uncertainty will make the sellers bail out prior to this weekend.
There were no RSI picks after the market close today. Catch you tomorrow.
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