Top 10 News Items 9/20-9/24: September Rally Continues; Gold Barrels Over $1,300; Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged, Sees 'Subdued Inflation Trends'
Here is a recap of the top news items from this week on Wall Street:
1. Stocks continued the now-almost month long rally this week; the Dow rose by almost 2.6%, making its total gain for the month of September at about 8.4%. Equities performed extremely well on Friday, with buyers being intrigued by extremely bullish comments from Appaloosa's David Tepper on CNBC's Squawk Box. In the interview, Tepper explains that in its recent statement the Fed indicated that it wants economic growth, and doesn't care about inflation. Tepper said the trade is easy..."Buy." The Dow is now trading at levels not seen since mid-May.
2. Gold rose over the $1,300 mark for the first time in history. With inflation concerns seemingly muted right now, and strong performance in both the stock and bond markets, many traders are perplexed by the metals continued rise to new all-time highs.
3. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged this week, also keeping the language within the FOMC untouched. The Fed said it is prepared to provide additional accommodation if necessary but traders seemed to focus more on the statement which said that the FOMC continues to anticipate "subdued inflation trends."
4. The head of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, Larry Summers, announced that he will be leaving the administration at year-end. Summers departure marks the third top economic official to leave the administration. The President’s first budget chief and first Council of Economic Advisors chairman also left.
5. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) officially become the second largest publicly traded company by market cap this week, surpassing PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) on Thursday of this week. Shares closed this week's session at $292.30
6. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced a 23% dividend hike this week, moving the quarterly payment from 13c to 16c per common share. The dividend yield moves to 2.54%.
7. M&A activity remained strong this week; deals included: L-1 Identity (NYSE: ID) in a $1.1 billion deal, IBM (NYSE: IBM) bought Netezza (NYSE: NZ) for $27/share, Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW) acquired Nu Horizons (Nasdaq: NUHC) for $7/share in cash and talks of taking Seagate private (NYSE: STX) also were heard.
8. On the Earnings front, we saw reports from: Lennar (NYSE: LEN), Discover (NYSE: DFS), Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE), Darden (NYSE: DRI), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) and Nike (NYSE: NKE).
9. Data on home sales came in this week. Existing home sales rose 7.6% to 4.13 million while new home sales were flat at 288,000.
10. And on the lighter side of Wall Street: Oliver Stone's long-awaited Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps will make its weekend box office debut this week. The movie that spurred many traders today to get involved in the market returns with GG himself and a new Bud Fox-esque trader played by Shia Le Bouf.
1. Stocks continued the now-almost month long rally this week; the Dow rose by almost 2.6%, making its total gain for the month of September at about 8.4%. Equities performed extremely well on Friday, with buyers being intrigued by extremely bullish comments from Appaloosa's David Tepper on CNBC's Squawk Box. In the interview, Tepper explains that in its recent statement the Fed indicated that it wants economic growth, and doesn't care about inflation. Tepper said the trade is easy..."Buy." The Dow is now trading at levels not seen since mid-May.
2. Gold rose over the $1,300 mark for the first time in history. With inflation concerns seemingly muted right now, and strong performance in both the stock and bond markets, many traders are perplexed by the metals continued rise to new all-time highs.
3. The Fed kept interest rates unchanged this week, also keeping the language within the FOMC untouched. The Fed said it is prepared to provide additional accommodation if necessary but traders seemed to focus more on the statement which said that the FOMC continues to anticipate "subdued inflation trends."
4. The head of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, Larry Summers, announced that he will be leaving the administration at year-end. Summers departure marks the third top economic official to leave the administration. The President’s first budget chief and first Council of Economic Advisors chairman also left.
5. Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) officially become the second largest publicly traded company by market cap this week, surpassing PetroChina (NYSE: PTR) on Thursday of this week. Shares closed this week's session at $292.30
6. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced a 23% dividend hike this week, moving the quarterly payment from 13c to 16c per common share. The dividend yield moves to 2.54%.
7. M&A activity remained strong this week; deals included: L-1 Identity (NYSE: ID) in a $1.1 billion deal, IBM (NYSE: IBM) bought Netezza (NYSE: NZ) for $27/share, Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW) acquired Nu Horizons (Nasdaq: NUHC) for $7/share in cash and talks of taking Seagate private (NYSE: STX) also were heard.
8. On the Earnings front, we saw reports from: Lennar (NYSE: LEN), Discover (NYSE: DFS), Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE), Darden (NYSE: DRI), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD) and Nike (NYSE: NKE).
9. Data on home sales came in this week. Existing home sales rose 7.6% to 4.13 million while new home sales were flat at 288,000.
10. And on the lighter side of Wall Street: Oliver Stone's long-awaited Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps will make its weekend box office debut this week. The movie that spurred many traders today to get involved in the market returns with GG himself and a new Bud Fox-esque trader played by Shia Le Bouf.
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