06July2022 Market Close & Major Financial Headlines: Stocks Rise After FOMC Minutes Released With The Fed Reaffirming Commitment To Bringing Down Inflation, Wall Street Nosedives During Last 30 Minutes Of Session
Summary Of the Markets Today:
- The Dow closed up 70 points or 0.23%,
- Nasdaq closed up 0.35%,
- S&P 500 closed up 0.36%,
- WTI crude oil settled at 99 down 0.93%,
- USD $107.03 up 0.51%,
- Gold $1741 up 0.03%,
- Bitcoin $20301 down 0.58% – Session Low 19784,
- 10-year U.S. Treasury 2.926% up 0.115%
Today’s Economic Releases:
The JOB OPENINGS AND LABOR TURNOVER report shows job openings decreased 6.9 percent in May 2022. Econmatters uses the change in job openings to forecast the direction of the economy – and this report is showing the economy is slowing.
The Federal Reserve released its minutes for the FOMC meeting on June 14/15, 2022. The bottom line is that a rate increase of three-quarters of a percent is on the table for the next meeting – and this should not be good news for the markets (although markets rose today). Note that the rest of the minutes discussed an economy that was improving but it looks now that the economy was slowing.
In discussing potential policy actions at upcoming meetings, participants continued to anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate to achieve the Committee’s objectives. In particular, participants judged that an increase of 50 or 75 basis points would likely be appropriate at the next meeting. Participants concurred that the economic outlook warranted moving to a restrictive stance of policy, and they recognized the possibility that an even more restrictive stance could be appropriate if elevated inflation pressures were to persist.
The ISM Services survey declined marginally in June 2022 from 55.9 to 55.3 – any value above 50 represents economic expansion. This indicates that the services portion of the economy has been stable – and services represent 2/3rds of the economy.
A potential recession flag is when the 2-year Treasury has a higher yield than the 10-year – and this inversion has been going on for the last two days. At the very least it can be interpreted that the market sees short-term high inflation.
A summary of headlines we are reading today:
- Global Supply For Battery Metals Is Running Tight As Demand Surges
- China Continues To Buy Record Levels Of Russian Crude
- Coinbase: Oil And Tech Stocks Are As Risky As Crypto
- Mortgage demand sinks even as rates drop
- Bonds, Bullion, & Black Gold Drop, Dollar Pops As Fed Confirms Hawkish Stance
- Recession Is Priced In; Stagflation Is Not
- Schumer provides ‘rock-solid evidence’ that Democrats will push forward with partisan tax and spending bill, analyst says
- The New York Post: 4 in 10 Americans say they’re ‘struggling’ financially amid high inflation and rising gas prices
These and other headlines and news summaries moving the markets today are included below.