Written by Gary
Closing Market Commentary For 07-30-2014
Gary is out of the office today so the market close summary is provided by our content sharing partner Investing.com.
S&P 500, Nasdaq end up as Fed in no rush to raise rates
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended higher on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve gave a rosier assessment of the U.S. economy while reaffirming that it is in no hurry to raise interest rates.
The U.S. central bank also, as expected, reduced its monthly asset purchases to $25 billion from $35 billion.
Among the biggest positives were bank shares, with the S&P financial index <.SPSY> up 0.4 percent, helping to support the S&P 500. Shares of Wells Fargo (N:WFC) gained 1.1 percent to $52.10.
“We got the taper as expected, and the real viewpoint of the committee is they can keep monetary policy accommodative even after we reach our inflation and employment goals,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities in New York.
Biotechnology stocks boosted the Nasdaq for a second straight day. The Nasdaq biotech index <.NBI> was up 1 percent after Amgen Inc (O:AMGN) posted better-than-expected earnings and raised its outlook, sending its shares up 5.4 percent to $130.01.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> fell 31.75 points, or 0.19 percent, to 16,880.36, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 0.12 points, or 0.01 percent, to 1,970.07, and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 20.20 points, or 0.45 percent, to 4,462.90.
The S&P 500 had traded lower ahead of the Fed announcement.
Longer article at Investing.com.
If you would like to get advanced buy/sell tweets from Gary, sign-up in the column to the right of this post by clicking on the ‘Follow‘ button. Write me with suggestions and I promise not to bite.
The DOW at 4:00 is at 16880 down 32 or -0.19%.
The SP500 is at 1970 up 0.12 or 0.01%.
SPY is at 196.98 down 0.03 or 0.02%.
The $RUT is at 1147 up 5 or 0.43%.
NASDAQ is at 4463 up 20 or 0.45%.
NASDAQ 100 is at 3976 up 17 or 0.43%.
$VIX ‘Fear Index’ is at 13.33 up 0.01 or 0.08%. Neutral to Slightly Bearish Movement
(Follow Real Time Market Averages at end of this article)
The longer trend is up, the past months trend is positive, the past 5 sessions have been sideways and the current bias is slightly negative.
WTI oil is traded down all day and closed down more than a dollar at 99.31.
Brent Crude closed at 107.72, up 0.15.
Gold traded below 1300 all day, reaching as low as 1293.30 and closed at at 1298.30.
Dr. Copper is at 3.243 after rising from an open of 3.23 before noon and trading flat all afternoon.
The US dollar closed essentially unchange (-0.01) at 81.50 after jumping from 18.35 to 18.54 with the GDP announcemnt and trading most of the rest of the day between 18.50 and 18.63. At 2:30m a sharp decline bottomed at 81.42 and quickly recovered back to 81.50.
Real Time Market Numbers
To contact me with questions, comments or constructive criticism is always encouraged and appreciated:
Written by Gary