Our Market Comments as of August 20th, 2014 US equity markets continued their positive performance last night, closing three consequtive trading sessions in positive territory. The Nasdaq Composite was the gained 0.43% on the day - helped mainly by the move in Apple stock, followed by the S&P500 with gains of 0.50%, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial gained 0.48% on the day reaching almost the 17k level. Positive macroeconomic data from the US housing market, and low inflation data, helped investors to participate along a broad base rally in different sectors of the market. More specifically before the market open we saw the release of Consumer Price Index for the month of July, which came out at 0.1%, in line with expectations, but lower from previous month of 0.3%. Low inflation may force the Federal reserve to remain accomodative for longer than expected which is positive for risk assets. Housing starts also rose to 1093k from 893k previous, which added more fuel to the rally. European markets expected to open in positive territory this morning, ahead of the FOMC minute releases this evening, which should give a good indication of future Fed intentions on the rates side.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 13:16:10 +0000