All the news you need to stay informed about what’s currently driving the market – courtesy of Raffa Wealth Management, LLC.
US stocks posted one of their strongest weeks of the year on lowered concerns over Syria and the reduced chance of significant action by the Fed. The Dow rose 3.0% for the week and the S&P 500 was up 2.0%. European stocks rose 1.8% for the week to reach their highest close since June 2008 and Japan was up 3.9%. The 10 year Treasury yield ended the week down slightly at 2.896%. Article
Dow Jones announced the largest changes to the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index since 2004. On September 20th Hewlett Packard, Bank of America, and Alcoa will be removed from the index and Nike, Goldman Sachs, and Visa will be added. Article
China announced its exports rose 7.2% in August from a year earlier, strongly up from earlier in the summer, and industrial output gained 10.4% in August. It’s the fastest growth rate since March 2012. Article
Japan’s second quarter GDP rose a revised 3.8%, much faster than the 2.6% initially estimated.
Euro zone factory output shrank 1.5% unexpectedly in July reaching its lowest level in three years.
Economists expect the Fed to cut their monthly bond purchases at their September meeting.
Retail sales rose 0.2% in August for their lowest growth rate since April and far below expectations. Article
Wells Fargo said it expects mortgage originations to drop 30% in the third quarter, JP Morgan said it expects to lose money on its mortgage origination business in the second half of the year and BofA said it was letting 2,100 employees go largely as a result of reduced refinancing activity.
Verizon is issuing $49 billion in bonds as part of the Vodafone buyout. It is the largest ever corporate bond issue by $32 billion. Article
Twitter filed documents with the SEC for its initial public offering.
Dell shareholders accepted the buyout proposed by Michael Dell for $25 billion taking the company private.
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