Stock market watch today5/18/2023 ![]() ![]() stocks have held up relatively well this quarter, shrugging off the Fed rate hikes and renewed recession fears. While confidence ticked lower compared with earlier estimates, inflation expectations moderated. consumer sentiment for March from the University of Michigan. Stocks traded higher following the release of the final reading on U.S. “That has positive implications for markets” and the economy, he said. economics at Truist, in a phone interview Friday. ![]() “Incomes and spending are hanging in there and inflation’s cooling,” said Mike Skordeles, head of U.S. Meanwhile, consumer spending edged up 0.2% in February while personal incomes rose 0.3%, according to a Bureau of Economic Analysis report Friday. Stucky expects the Fed may stop hiking once “cracks” start to form in the labor market, with job losses in “nonfarm payrolls.” “We think we’re getting pretty close to the end” of the rate-hiking cycle, he said. ![]() The market is pricing in a “coin flip” as to whether the Fed raises its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point at its May policy meeting or pauses, said Matt Stucky, senior portfolio manager at Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co., in a phone interview Friday. While the Federal Reserve has been battling high inflation with interest rate hikes, futures traders are betting that rates have already peaked and that the Fed will likely reverse course and cut rates at least a couple of times before the end of the year, according to the CME’s FedWatch tool. Read: Inflation softens in February, PCE finds, and gives ammo for Fed rate-hike pause That’s slightly lower than forecasts from economists polled by the Wall Street Journal and softened from the 4.7% increase seen over the 12 months through January. The personal-consumption-expenditures, or PCE, price index increased 0.3% in February, with inflation slowing to 5% year over year from 5.3% in January, according to a report Friday from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.Ĭore PCE, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge that excludes energy and food prices, rose 0.3% last month for a year-over-year rate of 4.6%. “On balance, the easing in February PCE inflation was fairly broad-based across goods and services, barring housing.” “Core price pressures” eased in February, Barclays said in an economics research note Friday. stocks ended sharply higher Friday, closing out March with monthly and quarterly gains, as investors weighed data showing signs of moderating inflation. The Nasdaq soared 16.8% in the first three months of 2023 to notch its largest quarterly percentage rise since the second quarter of 2020. In the first quarter, the S&P 500 advanced 7% and the Dow edged up 0.4%. For the month, the Dow rose 1.9%, the S&P 500 increased 3.5% and the Nasdaq jumped 6.7%. ![]()
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