Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
Markets and index ETFs forget Greece and cheer US economic data
Major markets and index ETFs forgot Greece today as the S&P 500 rose 1.10%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added .96%, the NASDAQ Composite rose 1.51%, and the Russell 2000 added 1.96%. Likewise, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) gained 1.11%, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF (NYSEARCA:DIA) rose .95%, the PowerShares QQQ Series 1 ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) rose 1.37%, and the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSEARCA:IWM) added 1.88%.
Investors seemed to forget about Greece and European problems today, Monday is a long ways off for the Europeans to decide the fate of Greece and the Euro. Investors also did not seem to care about Moody’s threat to downgrade nearly 100 global banks; it seems that credit ratings agencies do not matter anymore, at least in the eyes of investors. Iran was also not feared today, although oil investors would say differently as oil prices continue to rise alongside heated Iran-US tensions.
Perhaps today’s rally was due to an improved Philly Fed report and positive profit reports from automaker GM; it appears that manufacturing in America is improving. Initial unemployment reports also decreased while home starts and core producer prices increased, all three reports indicate that the US economy is improving slowly.
Bottom Line: If anything, today’s rally was a correction from the last few days’ declines, and markets still face significant headwinds as the Greece hydra will likely appear again on Monday. Tomorrow should be a quieter day with consumer price index and leading indicators reports released, and we should all rest up over the weekend before we have to fight the Greece monster again.
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