BetterTrades

This Week's Market Review

The week started on a good note with decent earnings reports and the announcement of several large mergers and acquisitions. There was no follow through, however, as traders waited on the sidelines in anticipation of the Fed. policy statement. The release Thursday of the statement saw the Fed. raising interest rates a quarter point as had been anticipated. Accompanying the rate hike was verbiage indicating that there had been a slow down in economic growth, thereby signaling that the end of the interest rate hikes may near. This caused the markets to rally with enthusiasm. Mutual fund window dressing added to the buying pressure at the weeks close as many mutual fund mangers moved into attractive stocks at the close of a quarter to make their portfolios look more attractive in their quarterly reports. For the weeks ahead, keep an eye out for earning reports and pre-announcements.

The DOW closed the week up, gaining an impressive 161.13 points to close at 11150.22 The S&P rose 2.1%, adding 25.70 points, ending the week at 1270.20. The NASDAQ advanced 2.4%, gaining 50.62 points, closing the week at 2172.09.