Market Momentum Advances
Positive earnings reports from AT&T, GE, Microsoft, Tesla, and Visa continued to advance the market momentum for the major stock indexes squashing any concerns about Congress’s need to raise the national debt ceiling debate and the Fed’s upcoming interest rate decision at least for now. Market momentum was also helped Market momentum was also helped by last week’s economic reports confirming a slowdown in the overall economy and indication that the Fed has reached its restrictive policy limit: U.S. Leading Index reported for the month -1%; Personal spending declined by 0.20%; Albeit, U.S. GDP report of 2.9% was better than expected furthering confirming although the economy is slowing down, it’s not in a recession. With improvement in the inflation front weakening the economy, all eyes and ears will again be on the Fed’s interest rate guidance this Wednesday. Investors expect nothing more than a 25 bps rise in the policy rate by the Fed.