The S&P 500 Gained 0.91% Last Week

I just have to point out that in all the recent drama, the S&P 500 gained 0.91% last week. If you hadn’t followed last week’s market and only looked at Friday’s closing numbers, you probably would have thought it was a dull week for trading.

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The futures market for the S&P 500 is currently down about 1.1% so we can expect a lower open. Beware. There will be more volatility next week.

Today, Jon Hilsenrath reported in the WSJ that the Fed is still ready to raise rates later this year. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise. They’ve been sending strong signals lately. A minor, albeit unpleasant, stock market decline won’t change their minds.

During the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual economic symposium here, many policy makers signaled that stock-market volatility and China’s woes haven’t seriously dented their view that the U.S. job market is improving, and that domestic economic output is expanding at a steady, modest pace.

Inflation might remain low for longer thanks to falling oil prices and a strong dollar. Officials will continue to keep a close watch on markets and China. But they hope U.S. consumer-price inflation will start inching toward their 2% annual target as the economy’s untapped capacity gets used up, leaving them in position to start raising rates after several months of forewarning.

“There is good reason to believe that inflation will move higher as the forces holding inflation down—oil prices and import prices, particularly—dissipate further,” said Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer in comments delivered to the conference, which ended Saturday.

Finally, today is Warren Buffett’s 85th birthday. We wish him a happy birthday. Here he is in 1962:

Posted by on August 30th, 2015 at 9:23 pm


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.