[However,] the market has already discounted first-quarter earnings, and maybe even second, ... The greater concern is about the economy going forward. |
[The Fed] didn't do anything different that what the market expected. They raised a quarter point and kept the measured pace. No surprises. |
A lot of people are done with what they're going to do for the year. They've already set up what they want to do in 2006. |
Corporations are starting to say that we've held costs back as much as we can, we're going to have to pass it on. |
Earnings are continuing to show improvement over last week and the market appears to be more focused on that than this morning's GDP numbers. |
Earnings are continuing to show improvement over last week, and the market appears to be more focused on that than this morning's GDP numbers. |
Earnings have been mixed, and most companies have been warning that the first quarter is going to be far from stellar. That, combined with a Fed that may still keep hiking rates, is raising the red flag for many investors. |
Earnings have still remained an overall positive here. |
Earnings were choppy last week, and the market reflected that. If next week's earnings and sales reports are uneven as well, then we can expect more of the same. |
Everybody pretty much knows what they're going to do -- they're going to raise the fed funds rate, ... everybody's going to be looking at their policy statement to see what the future is going to bring. |
Everyone is setting up for tomorrow's employment reports. It's a big mover of all markets, so people don't want to be caught on the wrong side. People want to go in neutral. We'll see this position squaring across the board ahead of that number. |
Fed officials have given no indication that they will pause at this meeting. But they may indicate in the statement that they are preparing to pause at the November meeting. |
For individuals, inflation has been an issue for a while, but for the market, it really wasn't. Over the last few days, the psychology changed. |
Friday is the key report for the markets this month, in terms of setting us up for what direction the market will take after Labor Day. |
Hopes for a good report on consumer confidence today is helping stock futures this morning. Any signs of higher confidence, which turn into higher spending, will be supportive to the markets. |