Medicare Agent News: A Quarter to Remember

Tuesday, April 4, 2023

A Quarter to Remember

By Connor Smith | Friday, March 31

Great Quarter, Stocks! The major U.S. indexes rallied after the latest reading from the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge came in cooler than expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3% on the day, and 3.2% on the week. It was the Dow's largest one-week gain since the week ending Nov. 11. It ended the quarter up 0.4%.

The S&P 500 rose 1.4%, or 3.5% on the week. It rose 7% during the quarter, which is the index's best three-month stretch the fourth quarter of 2021.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.7%. For the first quarter, the Nasdaq led the pack with a rather stunning gain of 16.8%—its best quarter since the second quarter of 2020. It's still off 24% from a Nov. 19, 2021 record close of 16,057.44.

The broader market shrugged off the Thursday evening indictment of former President Donald Trump by a Manhattan grand jury, though my colleague Bill Alpert points out that shares of media companies serving a conservative audience did rally on the news.

The more important news for markets was the core personal consumption expenditures price index, which increased 4.6% in February from a year earlier, slowing from a 4.7% annual pace in January. It was up 0.3% from January, compared to a 0.4% increase expected by economists.

Though stocks rose following the report, Barron's Megan Cassella writes that inflation remains elevated.

The February data, which came in just slightly below expectations, shows how far above target inflation remains despite the Fed’s rapid pace of monetary policy tightening over the past year. While any decline in pricing pressures is a positive sign, the 4.6% annual pace remains more than twice the central bank’s 2% target.

The rate of inflation for services—a stubborn category that has become a focus for the Fed—also came in higher than the number for goods.

The latest inflation data comes from before Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, so it doesn’t reflect any economic slowdown or tightening of credit conditions that has occurred since the turmoil in banking began earlier this month. The PCE data for March—due out in late April, just a few days before the Fed’s next policy meeting—will show the impact of those developments, if there is any.

But now that's an issue for April, May, and June. For now, we can offer the market our heartiest Wall Street analyst-style praise: "Great quarter!"

Watch our weekly TV show on Fox Business Saturday or Sunday at 10 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. ET. This week, an interview with fund manager Cathie Wood on what she's buying, the impact of AI, and how she values stocks.