Wall Street opens a crucial week, characterized by the big interest rate announcement by Jerome Powell’s Fed and by the publication of other quarterly reports from the Big Corporate America companies.
The US stock indexes are returning from a weekly rise, which confirmed the positive trend of the beginning of the year (YTD year to date).
Last week, the Nasdaq gained 4.3%, the S&P 500 rallied 2.5% and the Dow Jones advanced 1.8%.
Recent purchases contributed to January’s gains which, for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq are +2.5%, +6.2%, +11.04%, respectively.
The great protagonist is the Nasdaq, which benefits from the return of investors on technology stocks and growth stocks.
During the week, quarterly reports from the likes of McDonald’s, General Motors, Apple, Meta Platforms, Amazon and Alphabet will be released.
The FOMC, the monetary policy arm of the Fed, will meet tomorrow January 31st to announce its rate decision the day after tomorrow February 1st. The market is betting on an increase of 25 basis points.
In the last meeting of 2022, the FOMC raised rates by 50 bp last month, bringing them in the range between 4.25% and 4.5% and slowing the pace of rate hikes after four consecutive tightenings from 75 bp.
The latest projections by monetary policy makers – contained in the dot plot – indicate rates rising above 5% this year, a level they should remain at until 2024.