Last Updated 4:02PM EST
Stock indices finished today’s trading session in the green after cutting their losses from earlier in the day. As a result, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the S&P 500 (SPX), and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) gained 1.05%, 0.77%, and 0.89%, respectively.
Today’s reversal can be attributed to comments from Atlanta Federal Reserve President Raphael Bostic, who stated that he is firmly in favor of 25 basis point rate hikes going forward. This was enough for market participants to look past rising bond yields.
Indeed, the U.S. 10-Year Treasury yield increased to 4.08%. Similarly, the Two-Year Treasury yield also increased, as it hovers around 4.9%. This brings the spread between them to -82 basis points.
Thanks to Bostic’s comments, the market is pricing in a higher chance of a lower Fed Funds rate for June 2023 when compared to yesterday. In fact, the market’s expectations for a rate in the range of 5.25% to 5.5% decreased to 57.9% compared to yesterday’s expectations of 59.8%.
In addition, the market is now also assigning a 21.2% probability to a range of 5% to 5.25%. For reference, investors had assigned a 15.8% chance yesterday.
Last Updated at 2:30PM EST
Stocks are in the green heading into the final 90 minutes of today’s trading session. As of 2:30 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the S&P 500 (SPX), and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) are up 0.9%, 0.6%, and 0.7%, respectively.
Last Updated at 1:30PM EST
Stocks are mixed so far in today’s trading session. As of 1:30 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is up 0.3%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) are down 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.
In addition, WTI crude oil is also up today as it hovers around the high-$77 per barrel. Although the commodity is well off its yearly highs, its recent uptrend has led to prices at the pump gaining upward momentum across the country.
Indeed, the national average for regular gas was last $3.374 per gallon, up from yesterday’s reading of $3.359. Still, this remains significantly lower than the all-time high of $5.016 per gallon on June 14, 2022.
The highest prices can be found in Hawaii, where prices are substantially higher than the national average, at $4.878 per gallon. On the other hand, Texas is the state with the lowest gas prices, at $2.939 per gallon.
It’ll be interesting to see if this upward trend will continue going forward as the Federal Reserve looks to raise interest rates to fight inflation while oil producers lower production in order to maintain the price.
Last updated: 10:44AM EST
U.S. stocks are mixed on Thursday as the initial jobless claims data unexpectedly declined by 2,000 to 190,000 claims in the week ending February 18 versus a consensus of 195,000 and 192,000 in the prior week.
Continuing jobless claims dropped by 5,000 to 1.655 million in the week ending February 18.
Inflation continued to remain a persistent concern for the U.S. economy as labor costs increased by 3.2% in the quarter from October to December versus consensus forecasts of a rise of 1.6%.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is up 0.3% in morning trading, while the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) and S&P 500 (SPX) are down 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively, as of 10:44AM EST.
First published: 5:31AM EST
U.S. futures are trading mixed on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) up 0.12%. The DJIA was lifted by stronger-than-expected results and guidance from software providers Salesforce (NYSE:CRM), Okta (NASDAQ:OKTA) after the markets closed on March 1, 2023. On the other hand, futures on the Nasdaq 100 (NDX) and S&P 500 (SPX) are down 0.65%, and 0.48%, respectively, as of 4:30 a.m. EST, March 2.
A majority of stock indices finished the trading session mixed on the first day of March. Notably, 10-year Treasuries marked their highest yield of 4%, last seen in November 2022. Also, the 2-year Treasury yields peaked 4.89% yesterday, its highest since 2006. Seemingly, bonds remain one of the most attractive destinations for investors to park their corpus, currently.
Moving into March, traders seem less optimistic about the future. Fears of bigger rate hikes and an impending recession are creeping into traders’ minds. There are fewer chances of any positive momentum building in the markets for the rest of the week.
Economic data releasing today include Initial Jobless Claims and Productivity data. Also, Fed Governor Christopher Waller is scheduled to speak today afternoon, and markets will be looking to gauge the Fed’s stance from the speech.
On the earnings front, retailers Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST), Best Buy (NYSE:BBY), and Macy’s (NYSE:M) as well as semiconductor players Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and Marvell Technology (NASDAQ:MRVL) are slated to report today.
Meanwhile, European indices are trending lower this morning in anticipation of eurozone inflation data for February, to be released during the day.
Asia-Pacific Markets End Mostly in the Red
A majority of Asia-Pacific markets ended the trading session down today, as markets anticipate a potentially larger interest rate hike from the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, China’s Shanghai Composite, and Shenzhen Component indices closed down 0.92%, 0.05%, and 0.33%, respectively.
Concurrently, Japan’s indices also closed marginally lower, with Nikkei down 0.06% and Topix down 0.16%.
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