|
|
By Jeffrey
Cane | Wednesday, March 2 Plowing
Ahead. The
economic repercussions of Russia's invasion of Ukraine remain unclear, but
the Federal Reserve chairman was able to give investors
some small degree of certainty, and that was enough for today. Jerome
Powell, the Fed
chairman (or technically, the chair pro tempore, as he has not yet been
re-confirmed by the Senate) told the House Financial Services Committee today
that he was "inclined to support a 25-basis-point rate hike" at the
the Fed's policy meeting in two weeks' time. He added that going forward, the
central bank would "need to be nimble" in response to new data and
events -- especially the unfolding conflict in Ukraine. "We are going to avoid adding
uncertainty to what is already an extraordinary challenging and uncertain
moment,” Powell said. Barron's Alexandra
Scaggs lays out the main points of Powell's testimony here. The Fed chief's comments were seen as having
a less hawkish and more bullish tone, as they confirmed the consensus on Wall
Street. The Russia-Ukraine situation is certainly volatile and risky, but the
U.S. economic outlook has not radically changed -- at least not yet. As a result, Treasury prices
retreated after a recent rally, sending their yields higher, while stocks
recorded robust gains following yesterday's slump. The yield on the 10-year
Treasury note had its biggest daily gain since March 18, 2020, settling at
1.862% from 1.708% yesterday. The yield on the two-year note also rose, to
1.510% from 1.303%. Stocks enjoyed a broad rally. The S&P
500 closed up 1.9%, with 461 of its components advancing. All
11 sectors of the S&P 500 had solid gains; six of them were up 2% or
more. Other market barometers ended higher: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average, up 1.8%; the Nasdaq
Composite, up 1.6%; and the Russell 2000
up 2.5%. Rising yields bolstered financial
stocks. Comerica surged 6.9%, U.S.
Bancorp added 4.4%, Wells Fargo
advanced 3.8%, and Goldman Sachs Group gained
2.5%. A 2022 Barron's stock
pick, Nordstrom had the kind of day
stockpickers dream about: a 37.8% pop after the department-store retailer
reported strong fourth-quarter results and gave an upbeat outlook for the
year. Before today, the stock had been down 13.6% on the year. Now, it's up
19% year to date. Talk about a turnaround. Teresa
Rivas explains it all here. Ford Motor shares got supercharged in the wake of its
plans to create two divisions, one for its legacy combustion-engine business
and one for electric vehicles. The stock rose 8.4%, its biggest one-gain
since early January, when the company announced it would nearly double
production of its electric F-150 Lightning pickups. Ford stock is still down
nearly 13% year to date. Al Root has more here. Hewlett
Packard Enterprise lifted its
earnings forecast for its fiscal year ending in October and its stock
rocketed more than 10%. Eric Savitz has those
details. The big story in the markets today was again
oil. Crude oil futures rose nearly 7%, to $110.60 a barrel,
their highest level since May 2011. Chevron
gained nearly 3%, Exxon Mobil climbed 1.7%, Baker
Hughes jumped 7.2%. More on oil below. |
|
|
DJIA: +1.79% to 33,891.35 The Hot Stock: EPAM
Systems +16.1% Best Sector: Financials +2.6%
|
No comments:
Post a Comment