Sunday, August 2, 2020

Weekly Closing Numbers: FED On Hold













Market Direction: BULLISH alert issued 5/21/2020


What is the current stock market direction? 

Vote BULLISH (Up) or BEARISH (Down) in the upper right side bar, the current stock market direction weekly closing numbers. Leave a comment. Now for the news…

The economy

The S&P 500 rose 1.7%, and Nasdaq Composite rose 3.7% in a busy week that concluded with stellar mega-cap earnings results (and reactions). The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.2%, and the Russell 2000 declined 0.9%.

Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Alphabet (GOOG), and Facebook (FB) exceeded quarterly expectations, sending shares, except GOOG, noticeably higher on Friday. Naturally, investors entered the weekend wondering if these stocks can sustain these gains and, consequently, mitigate a possible market pullback. Earlier in the week, shareholders were unfazed by the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust hearing.

The S&P 500 information technology (+5.0%), real estate (+4.1%), and consumer discretionary (+2.1%) sectors advanced the most this week, while the energy (-4.3%), materials (-1.8%), financials (-0.9%), and industrials (-0.2%) sectors underperformed. 

These cyclical sectors were pressured by economic data that showed Q2 GDP decline at an annualized rate of 32.9% (Briefing.com consensus -35.0%), initial and continuing jobless claims increase on a weekly basis, and consumer confidence and consumer sentiment decline in July versus June. In addition, lawmakers extended their coronavirus relief bill talks into the weekend. 

The Fed was in the spotlight, too. The FOMC left rates unchanged, Fed Chair Powell made it abundantly clear that the central bank is not going to raise rates anytime soon, and the Fed extended its lending facilities through the end of the year.

Other notable developments included the U.S. Dollar Index (93.46) falling to a 2-year low and gold futures ($1986.20/ozt) breaking out to new highs. The 2-yr yield declined four basis points to 0.10%, and the 10-yr yield declined four basis points to 0.54%. WTI crude fell 2.3%, or $0.95, to $40.13/bbl.

$tockMarketDirection proprietary model is currently BULLISH. We strongly encourage you to monitor positions closely, exercise proper money management strategies and follow us at $tockMarketDirection for ALERTS we may issue advising a change in the current market direction. Stay tuned and follow us. If you have a testimonial or comment of how this website has helped you we would like to know, write us. Share with a friend. 

The market direction weekly closing numbers for the indexes this week compared to the initial BULLISH recommendation closing numbers:

Stock Market Closing Numbers 
compared to Recommendation Numbers

5/21/2020
7/31/2020
Difference
24,474.12
26,428.32

1,954.20
9,284.88
10,745.27

1,460.39
2,948.51
3,271.12
 
322.61

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