Markets hit the mid-week mark with gains today. The Nasdaq led the charge with 1.4%, the S&P 500 at 1.3%, and the Dow Jones a with 0.6% increase in market value. The Russell 2000 rose 2.10% today. Meanwhile, the VIX, a key indicator of market volatility, dropped 5.27% to 24.10.
Despite the hearings by the CEO’s of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook in congress today regarding possible antitrust issues, these four tech heavyweights still closed over 1% higher on the day. Many investors looked to the hearings to understand how these tech giants would be potentially impacted by antitrust regulations. The markets seem to illustrate they emerged unscathed.
The Federal Reserve announced that they would continue their stimulus packages as long as it would take, which reassured the markets today. They essentially said they vowed to use all of the tools at their disposal to minimize the impacts of the largest downturn in our lifetime. Interest rates will also remain near zero.
“There’s enough stimulus and support in the market from a monetary policy perspective, but also from fiscal, and that keeps a nice floor under the market,” said Amanda Agati, chief investment strategist for PNC Financial Services Group. “But we also think it’s going to be very difficult to make a lot of forward progress in this environment.”
Coronavirus updates as reported by CNBC today:
The death toll in the United States has crossed 150,000, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. Across the country, cases are still increasing by the tens of thousands and the U.S. reports nearly 1,000 deaths, on average, every day. California, Florida, Texas and several other hard-hit states recorded record-high average deaths this week. President Donald Trump continues to publicly tout the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment, despite scientific research that has shown no benefit of the drug for coronavirus patients.
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