What Yesterday’s Fed Decision Means for Markets
What’s in Today’s Report:
- FOMC Takeaways: The Fed Put Is Alive And Well
- How Bad Was Q1 GDP?
- Oil Update & Inventory Analysis
Futures are little changed as strong tech earnings are helping markets digest yesterday’s big rally.
Economically, the Chinese manufacturing PMIs were “ok.” The government number was again above 50 (50.4) while the research firm Ciaxin’s manufacturing PMI was a slight disappointment at 49.4 vs. (E) 50.1. Bigger picture, while it would have been nice to see a stronger recovery this month, it is still encouraging to see activity returning to “normal” just a few months after the height of the outbreak.
Facebook and MSFT earnings were strong after hours and commentary was cautiously positive (activity is stabilizing in April after sharp declines in March).
Today the key report is again Jobless Claims (E: 3.5MM) and as has been the case, any significant decline from the previous week will a marginal positive despite the absolute numbers still being historically high.
Other events today include the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, the Core PCE Price Index (E: -0.1%) and an ECB Rate Decision (7:45 a.m. ET). The ECB may increase its QE program, but that is already expected at some point this year, so even if they do later today it shouldn’t move markets too much.