1:25pm (EST)
The bulls have done us proud by hitting ALL of our fluff targets but the market immediately took a step back after Ben Bernanke started speaking.
Economic news came in better-than expected as 4Q Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was up 0.9% for the quarter versus expectations for an increase of 0.4%. The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) checked in at 64 versus a forecast for a reading of 61. The Fed’s Beige Book is the report we are most focused on and it is due out at 2pm (EST) sharp.
The Fed Chairman said economic growth will continue to be close to last year’s output of the second half but said the economy will have to grow at a faster rate in order for unemployment to continue to fall. Bernanke’s comments hinted there are no immediate plans for monetary easing.
Those remarks took the air out of the bulls sails but the indexes have recovered, somewhat, as we head into the second half of trading.
We have a ton of information to cover inside our Members Area so we have to cut it short.
As we head to press, the Dow is down 20 points to 12,985 while the S&P is off by 3 points to 1,369 after kissing a high of 1,378. The Nasdaq
triggered 3,000 for the first time since December 2000 but is currently lower by 7 points to 2,980.
We will be back in the morning with our next update.