The markets, witness the best January in 30 years yesterday and that support investor's confidence as Stocks rose to close on solid earnings. An indication that Federal Reserve will halt rate hikes also generated positive sentiment and investors hurried back into the market, following a wild Christmas sell-off.
On Thursday the increase was propelled by better-than-expected earnings from a variety of corporations, including the much surprising General Electric but Facebook as well. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished merely below the range at 24,999.65 while the S&P 500 increased 0.9% to finish at 2,704.09. The Nasdaq Composite was also elevated, increasing about 1.3% to 7,281.70.
Disappointing Chinese manufacturing data
Daily Analysis - 01/02/2019