(As of 7:25 am PST)
Markets opened higher this morning as Federal Reserve
Chair Janet Yellen testified on the state of the economy before lawmakers. The first ever central bank Chairwoman
presented a dovish tone in her remarks, reiterating her stance on keeping
interest rates low for the foreseeable future.
In the first 30 minutes of trading markets are liking what they hear
from Yellen. It’s a light data calendar
today. A report on wholesale inventories
climbed 0.3% in December while another report showed job openings ticked down
to 3.99 million in December. Earnings
keep coming in as well. Shares of
Omnicom and Sprint beat earnings expectations with the stocks rising 3% and 6 %
respectively. CVS Caremark shares rose
2% after posting better than expected earnings.
Big decliners included ConAgra Foods which fell over 5% after cutting
its 2014 fiscal outlook. Broad international
indexes are higher with commodities also rising. The US dollar index is down slightly while interest
rates ticked up. Although the market has
recovered some of its January losses there’s still a cautious tone of
uncertainty that has money managers lacking conviction. We could be in a tight trading range for the
next couple of days/weeks barring any surprising news.
No comments:
Post a Comment