Wednesday, February 17, 2016

The Market On Wednesday

  Good morning. It is 34 degrees and overcast here in the Upper Hudson Valley. The forecast predicts that we are back to the very moderate Winter we have experienced most of this season. The frigid temperatures we felt over the weekend are not about to reappear in the near future. On top of that the forecast predicts that we go back into the 50s this weekend. Basketball fans around the country are waiting for 3 p.m. Thursday, that is when the NBA trade deadline expires. Fans of the NY Knicks, ahem like myself,  are hoping the team can pull off a deal to land a speedier point guard.

  At 9:00 a.m. ET futures are significantly higher and the price of oil is trading near $30 a barrel. The market is poised to open higher.

  The equities market is very much linked to the price of oil, most but not all of the time. As oil has slightly rebounded this week, so the market goes as well. The Fed will be releasing all kinds of salient data today and as has become the custom, investors will look through the documents for signs of another possible base interest rate hike.

CNN: Stocks: 4 things to know before the open
At 9:15 a.m., the Federal Reserve will post an update on industrial production and capacity utilization in January.

And then the Fed will release the minutes from its latest policy meeting at 2 p.m. Investors will parse through these documents for any clues about the Fed's plans for rate hikes in 2016.

1 comment:

Glynn Kalara said...

There is so much "new" oil production capacity out here that it's not likely that we'll be seeing $80 a bl. again any time soon. I saw a gal. of gas going for $1.35 the other day I couldn't believe it. People are still buying high mileage cars though and the cars will get even better mileage soon , plus soon were going to be seeing the first long distance versions of affordable electrics. The hand writing is on the wall for oil no matter what the Saudis and the Russians etc do.