All the news you need to stay informed about what’s currently driving the market – courtesy of Raffa Wealth Management, LLC.
The Dow has completed its comeback from the financial crisis and set a new all time high on Tuesday and each day after. It ended the week at the all time high of 14,397, rising 2.2% on strong economic news. The Dow has more than doubled since its March 2009 low and is up 9.4% for the year to date. The S&P 500, a broader market index, also gained 2.2% and is less than 1% from its all time high, but has been held back recently by the substantial weight of Apple. Internationally, Japan continues to see gains in its stock market driven by the easy money policies of its central banks and signs that the country is emerging from recession. It rose 5.8% for the week. Europe also improved with stocks up 2.3% for the week near a 5 year high. As a result of the strong equity performance investors have poured out of fixed income investments. The 10 year Treasury yield rose to 2.056%. Article
Revised data from Japan showed that 4th quarter GDP improved from a 0.4% contraction to 0.2% growth, ending the string of two quarterly declines.
The unemployment rate fell to a post crisis low of 7.7% and the economy added 236K jobs, well above what was estimated. Article
The Fed announced that 17 of the largest 18 U.S. banks passed stress tests.
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