All the news you need to stay informed about what’s currently driving the market – courtesy of Raffa Wealth Management, LLC.
After starting off the week with their worst day of the year on the news of Italian election results that could bring about instability, U.S. stocks rebounded to finish up 0.2%. Markets largely shrugged of the spending cuts known as the sequester and cheered comments by Fed Chairmen Ben Bernanke that he continued to support easy money policies. February also finished positive with the Dow up 1.4% and the S&P 500 gaining 1.1%. Article
The economy grew at a 2.2% rate last year driven mainly by consumers as government spending and investment contracted 0.3% over 2012. The fourth quarter’s GDP was revised from a 0.1% contraction to growing 0.1%, which was well below economist estimates. Article
U.S. factory activity continued to expand driven by business spending and global trade and is doing much better than other countries around the world.
Consumer sentiment also rose to its highest level since November.
JP Morgan announced it plans to cut costs by $ 1billion a year and cut 17,000 jobs in the next year.
Freddie Mac announced an $11 billion profit for 2012 on the rebounding US housing market. It’s the first profitable year since 2006.
After announcing disappointing earnings Groupon ousted its CEO and co-founder. Article
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