The month of September has marked an extremely active and volatile time period for the S&P 500, Dow Jones, and NASDAQ alike. The state of the U.S. economy, geopolitical relations between the U.S. and China, political unrest, and more all play a part in influencing the pendulum-like action of the market this month. In today’s article, we will review the Market News: The Ups and Downs of September 16th.
So what exactly happened on September 16th with the markets? According to a recent Forbes article written by Sergei Klebnikov, the stock market was mixed on Wednesday, but what are the factors that influenced this shift? Experts like Sergei Klebnikov seem to attribute a large portion of swing to the mixed response of the U.S. government to the result of a COVID-19 economy. The Federal Reserve concluded its two-day policy meeting with the decision to keep interest rates near zero until 2023. White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, told reporters that he was optimistic about a coronavirus stimulus deal and President Trump concurred with a statement of support for a larger stimulus deal. This is good news for the economy and theoretically good news for the markets, however, it was delivered with mixed responses.
The Fed maintains that the economy has recovered more quickly than expected. Fed Chairman, Jerome Powell, stated that the GDP activity still remains “well below” what it was at pre-pandemic levels. This could be considered as encouraging or discouraging depends on one’s viewpoint. With that being said, this coupled with the delivery of disappointing U.S. retail sales (which rose only 0.6% last month – 0.5% lower than anticipated) halted markets and kept things low.
Overall, this resulted in mixed market signals. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose around 50 points (roughly 0.2%). On the other hand, the S&P 500 declined nearly 0.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped down 1.3%.
We are excited to see what the rest of the month of September brings. Stay up to date with our biweekly market update by signing up for our emails or tuning back into our blog. It is important to stay up to date on the state of the markets, as well as to educate oneself on how to manage financial literacy. Stay calm, be attentive, and above all do your research! Happy trading from FFR, everyone!