Market Direction Weekly Closing Numbers

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The economy

The stock market registered its second consecutive weekly advance with the S&P 500 climbing 1.6%. The benchmark index extended its two-week rally to 4.5%, turning its February loss to a 0.4% gain. The Nasdaq outpaced the benchmark index this week (+1.9%), but remains down 0.5% for the month.

To little surprise, this week's rally in equities occurred alongside a bid in the crude oil market, which sent the energy component higher by 3.2% to $32.75/bbl. Interestingly, the energy sector was among the weakest performers, climbing just 0.4% for the week.

Several reports suggested that equity investors were longing for some sort a coordinated intervention being agreed to at the weekend G-20 summit in Shanghai, but U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew cautioned not to expect any sort of a crisis response outside of a commitment to fiscal reforms. On a related note, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Friday that the debt-financed growth model has reached its limits and that there is no shortage of policy proposals, but rather a lack of policy implementation.

The rally in equities hit a speed bump on Friday after the second revision to fourth quarter GDP (+1.0%; Briefing.com consensus 0.4%) and January Core PCE Prices (+0.3%; Briefing.com consensus 0.1%) strengthened the case for the Federal Reserve's rate hike argument. The PCE Price Index is the Fed's preferred inflation gauge and it followed hotter than expected January PPI (+0.1%; Briefing.com consensus -0.2%), core PPI (+0.4%; Briefing.com consensus 0.0%), CPI (0.0%; Briefing.com consensus -0.1%), and core CPI (+0.3%; Briefing.com consensus +0.1%) readings. As a result, the fed fund futures market saw a shift in rate hike expectations with the market now pricing in a 53.0% chance of the next hike in December after not expecting another hike until after February of 2017 prior to Friday's session.

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By the numbers the weekly closing index numbers compared to the initial sign-up and subscribe recommendation closing numbers: 

Stock Market Closing Numbers
compared to Recommendation Numbers
	?/?/?	?/?/?	Variance
Dow Jones	?	?	?
Nasdaq	?	?	?
S&P 500	?	?	?