By Alex Eule
| Wednesday, May 20
What Now? After
two days when vaccine news drove the market, investors had less reason to be
optimistic -- or pessimistic -- on Wednesday. The Federal
Reserve released minutes from the latest meeting of
the Federal Open Market Committee. Fed officials, not surprisingly, spoke at length about the pandemic, but there
was no consensus around the debate spreading across the country -- how and
when to reopen the economy. From the minutes:
Participants discussed
several alternative scenarios with regard to the behavior of economic activity
in the medium term that all seemed about equally likely. ... On the one
hand, a number of participants judged that there was a substantial likelihood
of additional waves of outbreak in the near or medium term. ... On the
other hand, economic activity could recover more quickly if the pandemic
subsided enough for households and businesses to become sufficiently confident
to relax or modify social-distancing behaviors over the next several months.
Investors are
still leaning toward the "other hand." The Dow
Jones Industrial Average rose 369 points Wednesday, or 1.5%, while the S&P
500 was up
1.7%, to its highest close since March 6. The broad index is up 4% from 52
weeks ago, though it's off 12% from its February all-time high.
The index's best performer
on the day was MGM Resorts International, which is
symbolic for the gamble that investors are taking these days. While MGM is down
50% on the year, the stock is up 22% in the last month. That's despite the
company's flagship Las Vegas resort remaining closed.
MGM announced this week that it will reopen its first property in Mississippi on
May 25.
No comments:
Post a Comment