Yahoo Finance US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Rally Driven by Energy and Technology
US stocks were higher Wednesday buoyed by the Russel 2000 and the Nasdaq 100, with the Dow Industrial Average as the lagger. Inflation came in stronger than expected, and the Fed minutes were relatively subdued. Refiners surged higher as gasoline inventories tumbled ahead of the driving season. Sectors were mixed, driven higher by Energy and Technology shares, while Utilies settled in the red. For the trading session, he Nasdaq was higher by 0.7%, the S&P 500 rose 0.3% while the Dow Industrials was barely changed. Crude oil prices continued to rise, climbing 0.75%
Fed Minutes Show Possible Hike in 2019
Federal Reserve officials during their most recent FOMC meeting left room for the possibility of interest rate hike some time in 2019, should economic conditions improve, according to minutes. The minutes show that an unchanged decision was unanimous at the March 19/20 meeting. Discussion between Fed members showed that they would be watching the data on an economy most of them expected to improve through the year. While most of the members now see no rate hike for the balance of the year, some say there could be a rate hike.
Consumer Prices Rise to a 14-Month High in March
The consumer prices index increased by 0.4% from February, which was the largest increase since January of 2018. This followed a 0.2% increase in CPI in February. March CPI increased 1.9% year over year. CPI gained 1.5% year over year in February according to the BLS. Expectations had been for CPI to rise by 0.3% in March and increasing 1.8% year over year. Core CPI increased by 0.1% in March which was unchanged from the February reading. On a year over year basis, core CPI increased by 2%, which iwas the lightest increase in 14-months. This is down from a 2.1% year over year increase in February for the core CPI.
Energy Share Rally, Refiners Lead the Pack
Refiners shot higher on Wednesday following a bullish inventory report from the EIA. Gasoline prices surged higher, following a larger than expected draw. According to the EIA, crude oil inventories increased by 7.0 million barrels from the previous week. This was offset by a gasoline inventory decreased by 7.7 million barrels last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.1 million barrels last week. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased last week by 4.1 million barrels last week.
Demand remains flat. The EIA reports that total products demand over the last four-week period averaged 20.5 million barrels per day, down by 0.8% from the same period last year. Over the past month, gasoline demand averaged 9.4 million barrels per day, up by 1.2% from the same period last year. Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.2 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 3.1% from the same period last year.
This article was originally posted on FX Empire
