Almost exactly one year after sparking a furious rally in financial markets, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell did the exact opposite on Wednesday, staking out a cautious view on interest-rate cuts in 2025 that stunned investors.
While concern has grown in the past week that narrowing market breadth has tapped the brakes on the S&P 500 Index’s blistering rally, it turns out that stock bulls are still stepping in to snap up shares ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision.
Earnings season is here, and the US stock market’s furious $9 trillion 2024 rally is facing perhaps its biggest test of the year.
Just as Wall Street traders come to grips with the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut, Friday’s US options expiration threatens to whipsaw the market some more.
Jerome Powell delivered exactly what traders up and down Wall Street had long hoped for: A big interest-rate cut that would justify this year’s steep rally in stocks and bonds as the era of tight monetary policy finally began to reverse.
Take out the few big tech companies that keep pushing the S&P 500 Index to all time highs and it looks like the engine is running on fumes.
Whether it’s another move up or a dive down, traders are bracing for added volatility wrought by Wednesday’s dual macroeconomic catalysts: a report on consumer prices in the morning and the Federal Reserve’s rate decision in the afternoon.
Wall Street is so divided on whether the US stock market’s meteoric rise has gone too far, too fast that even Bank of America Corp.’s own strategists disagree.
Traders are eyeing Apple Inc. after its stock slid below a critical psychological threshold on Tuesday as shares entered a technical correction for the first time since August this month.
All three major American stock indexes stormed to fresh all-time highs Thursday as Nvidia Corp.’s results rekindled faith that breakthroughs in artificial intelligence will boost profits and give stock prices further room to run.
Just months after setting a 2024 target for the S&P 500 Index, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists have boosted their forecast for a second time, reflecting Wall Street’s optimistic outlook for earnings.
The S&P 500 Index blew past a series of troubling markers in its relentless rally to 5,000. Now, after Tuesday’s rout, investors are staring at a potentially long way down before they find support.
Stronger than expected earnings are leading companies on both sides of the Atlantic to announce share buybacks at a blistering pace as 2024 gets going — a potentially crucial pillar of support for global stock markets already trading at all-time highs.
The stock market’s rally to record highs heading into this week’s Federal Reserve meeting has some of Wall Street’s biggest optimists growing concerned that the good vibes are sending a contrarian signal.
Stocks started 2024 with a limp. But that could change this week as earnings season kicks off and companies start announcing their plans for share repurchases, something investors hope will help the market keep last year’s rally running.
The financial world is moving fast, as the Federal Reserve prepares to start cutting interest rates and stock indexes are at or near all-time highs.
After clashing in recent years, Wall Street traders and the Federal Reserve are – for once – broadly in sync: The great monetary pivot is near as central bankers engineer a once-unthinkable soft landing in the world’s largest economy.
Investors are facing a pivotal week as a key measure of inflation that hits Tuesday and the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate decision on Wednesday are expected to set the tone for the stock market and economy heading into 2024.
Stock investors are turning to roughed-up corners of the market from small caps to value shares as they seek out bargains with the S&P 500 Index riding a five-week winning streak and soaring almost 9% since the start of November.
The S&P 500 Index’s best week in a year has brought the broad equities benchmark to a decisive point where stocks can make a significant break higher or find their gains capped.
The rout in US stocks has brought the S&P 500 Index to a crucial inflection point. It’s teetering near a correction after breaching 4,200 for the first time since May — a key technical level that may point to a longer-term selloff.
It’s getting bleak for equity bulls hoping for a reprieve from the US stock market’s “higher-for-longer” tantrum.
US small-cap and industrial stocks are dropping, typically signals of a recession, but in a year where equities have already beaten expectations some investors are dismissing the moves as little more than noise — for now.
A bad week on Wall Street turned dismal Thursday after the relentless surge in Treasury yields sapped demand for risk assets. In the end, US stocks suffered the biggest drop in six months as investors recalibrate for a world where rates sit at levels not seen in a generation.
US stocks continued their slog through the end of summer, but the S&P 500 Index just notched a resiliency milestone not seen in five years.
Stock-market strategists who were largely wrong about this year’s rally are finally starting to come to face their mistake, raising year-end targets for the S&P 500 Index.
The S&P 500 Index’s surprise 16% rally this year is rewarding traders who bought in early and punishing those who’ve remained skeptical. But fear of a downturn remains.
Surprised that the S&P 500 swung into the green Friday? Don’t worry. Just wait. It’ll fall again after the next opening bell.
Equity traders reeling from the market’s worst stretch since February face some pivotal events in the days ahead, and a closely watched speech by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell may not even be the biggest test of all.
Investors are the least pessimistic on stocks since February of last year, before the Federal Reserve began one of the most aggressive tightening cycles in decades, according to Bank of America Corp.’s latest global survey of fund managers.
With Corporate America’s earnings season nearing an end, the takeaway is clear: Challenges remain, but for a broad swath of companies the worst of the profit pain is likely over as margin-shredding inflation pressures ease.
With the Federal Reserve nearing the end of its most disruptive monetary-tightening campaign in a generation, a softening US dollar is poised to boost profit growth for nearly half of the companies in the S&P 500 Index over the next year.
US stock market traders are almost completely fearless now, which has some strategists bracing for a possible selloff.
Equity strategists are boosting earnings forecasts for the S&P 500 Index over the coming year faster than they are marking them down, pushing a key indicator tracking the momentum of analyst revisions well off its November nadir.
As a dizzying first half for US stocks draws to a close, the Nasdaq 100 Index is poised for its best opening six months to a year ever, and Wall Street is growing concerned that the Federal Reserve will derail the rally.
Stock-market believers are looking past the roughest stretch in months for US equities and clinging to bets on a rally in the back half of the year once the Federal Reserve stops hiking interest rates.
From Home Depot Inc. to Walmart Inc., the biggest US retailers are about to grab the earnings spotlight, providing investors crucial insight into consumer demand, the trajectory of economic growth and Corporate America’s profitability.
Ignoring the Federal Reserve’s determination to keep raising rates and hold them there is a wildly profitable trade on Wall Street right now. It’s trying to swim against the rising market that carries risks.
Some of Wall Street’s biggest banks expect a lengthy period of higher interest rates to further pressure Corporate America’s profit engine, threatening equity gains as companies grapple with elevated financing costs and margin-shredding inflation.
Before investors get too excited about the July surge in stocks, here’s something to keep in mind: August and September are historically the two worst months for the S&P 500 Index.
US stock futures extended gains after markets closed Tuesday as investors appear to be embracing risk, at least for the start of the week, as markets resume trading in full force following America’s long Independence Day holiday weekend.
Wall Street is afraid to buy the dip this time around. Even amid this latest leg of the stock market selloff, equities still aren’t fully reflecting the risks facing corporate earnings...
The S&P 500 Index is coming off its best week since November 2020, having posted four consecutive days of more than 1% gains for just the fifth time in history, according to LPL Financial. Historically, that has been encouraging for the stock market, as each time it’s happened the S&P has climbed more than 20% over the ensuing year, with an average return of 28%.
Wall Street analysts have a spotty history of calculating how geopolitical risks will weigh on the earnings and stock prices of the companies they cover. And that was before Russia invaded Ukraine.
