Stock market today

S&P 500: 4,079.95,+6.01(+0.15%)
Dow 30: 33,446.26,+16.02(+0.05%)
Nasdaq: 13,688.84,-9.54(-0.07%)
Russell 2000: 2,223.05,-36.10(-1.60%)

Stock market news today

“Stocks traded little changed Wednesday as investors considered the latest batch of stronger-than-expected economic data and digested meeting minutes from the Federal Reserve.

Each of the three major indexes hugged the flat line, with the S&P 500 and Dow hovering near record levels.

Investors this week have been digesting a spate of better-than-expected economic data, with job growth accelerating faster-than-anticipated, an index of service sector activity reaching a record level and manufacturing activity expanding by the most in decades in recent months. The International Monetary Fund upgraded its global growth forecast to 6% this year from the 5.5% rise seen previously, largely reflecting the quick recovery in the U.S. economy. And JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday that the current U.S. economic boom “could easily run into 2023” amid the massive fiscal and monetary policy support provided to individuals and businesses.

“Clearly the Market today is telling you, don’t try to bend the trend. There’s an upward bias to the market – it’s a fairly strong upward bias and until it breaks, you want to, I think, be heavily in equities,” George Ball, Sanders Morris Harris CEO, told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday. “But when prices do break, the market clearly is seeking some form of new leadership, [so] I don’t think smart investors would be wise to buy a dip quickly.”

But even given these upbeat signals, inflation concerns that had weighed on investors in recent weeks at least temporarily attenuated, and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell back toward 1.65%, or about 10 basis points below last week’s highs.

The Federal Open Market Committee’s March meeting Wednesday afternoon also offered a look at how monetary policymakers were thinking about the conditions sufficient to warrant an adjustment to their policy stance, and what level and duration of inflation might prompt a move. In these, “participants noted that the economy was far from achieving the [FOMC’s] broad-based and inclusive goal of maximum employment,” suggesting a sharper and more sustained rebound would be needed before policymakers begin to think about tightening.”

Stock market data: Yahoo Finance

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