Traders this week had one thing on their minds and that was earnings. The Fed turned dovish last week and is willing to pause its pace of rate hikes. We’re currently in the thick of earnings season and the overall bullish, yet, mixed message, has been the standard from many companies. However, with several bellwethers reporting much higher rates of current EPS growth, investors cheered most of the week.
Investors were, generally, happy with the State of Union address this week. After the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, President Trump gave a surprisingly bipartisan speech. While lacking in actual policy points, the speech was considered a win for the markets.
Perhaps the only down point this week was economic data. Various metrics still pointed to a healthy economy. However, much like recent previous months/weeks, the data isn’t as bullish as it was even a few quarters ago. The less-than-ideal data across labor, manufacturing and consumer health kept a lid on potentially large gains on the week.
All in all, the first full week of trading in February was a slow grind higher.
Be sure to check out our previous Wrap here, when the Powell Put was put in place.
