Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Economic Journal - Wednesday, 2/25/2015



(As of 7:15 am PST)
 
Stocks opened flat this morning after recording modest gains yesterday as investors geared up for Day 2 of Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s congressional testimony. Stocks got a lift Tuesday after dovish comments from Yellen which seemed to point to a rate hike coming in the second half of the year. The Dow and S&P500 both grabbed record closes with the Nasdaq making headlines as the tech heavy index approaches its March 2000 peak of 5,000 pts. The economic calendar is light today with a report on housing showing new US home sales coming in flat in January at an annual pace of 481,000. The data beat consensus as analysts had forecast sales to fall in January. Also making headlines today, was a disappointing earnings report from Hewlett-Packard. H-P shares are down 9% in early trading after reporting slumping revenues and lowering its outlook for 2015. Financial news is mixed around the rest of the globe. Asian markets finished mixed while the major European benchmarks look to finish lower as Germany stands ready to vote on the four month loan extension for Greece tomorrow. Gold is up and oil down slightly while the 10 yr. treasury yield is flat, hovering just below 2.0%.

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