Stocks steady ahead of Fed's policy announcement
The central bank is expected to show it's ready to act but stop short of aggressive measures for now. Private-sector job gains top estimates. Factory activity and construction spending are also up.
Updated at 12:22 p.m. ET By Andrea Tse and wire reports
Stocks traded in a narrow holding pattern Wednesday as investors awaited the wrap-up of the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting and digested better-than-expected private-sector jobs data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) was up 35 points at 13,044. The S&P 500 ($INX) was up 3 points at 1,382. The Nasdaq Composite ($COMPX) was down 2 points at 2,938.
The Fed's latest interest rate decision will be announced at 2:15 p.m. ET.
A new bond-buying program would be a surprise, but the Fed is expected to start laying the groundwork for such a move. A change in the pledge to keep rates at historic lows for longer than currently telegraphed is viewed as likely (related video).
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The Institute for Supply Management reported that U.S. factory activity rose to 49.8 from 49.7 in June. Economists had expected a level of 50.2 (a reading below 50 indicates contraction).
The Commerce Department said construction spending edged up in June as investment in new homes and in home improvement countered a slowdown in public works projects funded by the federal government, Reuters reported. Total construction spending increased by an expected 0.4% to an annual rate of $842 billion.
Throughout the day, automakers including Ford (F), General Motors (GM) and Chrysler Group are issuing their car and truck sales reports for July.
Comcast (CMCSA) posted net income of $1.35 billion, or 50 cents per share, for the April-to-June period, up 32% from $1.02 billion, or 37 cents per share, a year ago, The Associated Press reported.
Time Warner (TWX) posted second-quarter adjusted earnings of 59 cents a share on revenue of $6.74 billion. Analysts were expecting 59 cents a share on revenue of $6.95 billion.
MasterCard (MA) reported second-quarter earnings of $713 million or $5.65 a share, beating Wall Street's target of $5.57 a share. Purchase volume increased 13% globally, though revenue amassed in overseas markets took a hit because of the stronger dollar.
Burger King Worldwide (BKW) posted net income of $48.2 million, or 14 cents per share, in the second quarter, AP reported. That's up from $30.2 million in the year-ago period, when the company was private.
Nokia (NOK) shares were rising more than 10% on talk that Chinese PC maker Lenovo may be interested in the struggling Finnish cellphone maker, Reuters reported.
Will someone please explain to me why the Fed's actions to basically print more money has such an impact on the stock market? I don't get it.
To me, all the Fed is doing is devaluing our currency which is going to create inflation down the road--perhaps not immediately, but it's coming.
The things I am reading is that the employment sector has for-ever changed. There will be a core of permanent workers and everyone else is going to be contract or temporary workers. This trend actually started 20 years ago but now it is affecting many more people. Meanwhile our policy makers continue to use old solutions to new problems and guess what--it ain't working.
Time for Americans to wake up and start demanding things from their politicians rather than defending or attacking the candidate from the other party because this isn't changing anything either.
It doesn't matter how long they keep interest rates artificially low-People without jobs still don't qualify to borrow money anyway.
The only way we will get out of this mess is by having an administration that sets policies that will encourage businesses to hire people. This does not mean loaning huge sums of $ to "Green" comanies that are going to fail because there is no demand for their products. It means keeping the tax rates low and creating incentives for businesses to expand.
The current administration is doing just the opposite of what makes sense in order to promote its green agenda and redistribute wealth in this country.
This is just a way for the Obama administration to keep stock prices up in order to get reelected-it is in no way going to put people back to work.
If you really want Obama to win in November you really should consider spending your time talking him up instead of constantly bashing Mitt. It really comes off childish and uninformed, and I'll bet does more damage than good for your cause. And I would love to read all of the reason you like Obama so much.
I'm not really sure about the on-going saga of the housing failures, and Financial breakdown of our system.
Isn't much left to debate or hash over anymore....
We had unscrupulous Realtor,Brokers
We had Flipper Investors.
We had Crooked Appraisers.
We had scheming Banksters, that turned their heads.
We had a Majority of Ignorant Buyers...
And we had a Financial Industry that was very ept at colusion and twisting facts..
And we had a Government that encouraged parts and then backed the Failures..
Looked like a recipe for disaster...That many of us didn't see SOON ENOUGH.?
ECONOMY MAY BE SLOW GROWTH FOR LONG TERM.
Sounds right to me.
When the only jobs being created are low wage and often not full time it is difficult
to see how the economy can grow. 70% or so of the money spent in the economy is
from consumer spending and unless there is more money in the pockets of the consumer
the economy will not grow very much.
I would bet that many of the jobs that are available today don't pay a great deal
more than many get from unemployment and other government benefits while
they are unemployed. In that situation a job is only a replacement for money that
was already being spent in the economy.
The government is out of money to stimulate the economy and the Fed can't just
keep printing money. That will over time create another whole economic disaster.
It is time for the private sector to take over and start creating some jobs that
will be full time with a decent wage. I know, I know the government needs to get
out of the way and let them operate, but usually when that happens the private sector
screws things up in short order.
What the government and our President and congress need to do is get to work on a
new tax code that is much more fair an equitable for everyone and start to review
the regulations it imposes on both the private sector and itself and see what they can
get rid of.
We need to bring manufacturing back to this country. That has always been where the
better jobs are. We also need to bring investment back home. A better tax code would
go a long way toward doing both.
We need to move forward with the next revolution. Obviously the industrial and technology
revolutions have pretty well run their course, especially in the job creation and investment
areas. IMO, the next revolution will be in renewable energy. That is where the investment
need to be and where the jobs will be created. Until that happens we need to relax our
regulations on drilling and the movement of petroleum products in North America and
the mining of coal. This is not the future, but it is needed in the present. The future
is in renewable energy and that is what we need to persue.
Come on America we can do it. And no it really doesn't matter who the next President is
and who controls congress. This is what needs to be done and both sides had better
recognize that before long.
Out with politics and in with some good old non-partiscan critical thinking. Hard to believe
that will happen in todays politcal environment.
MG,
Point taken.
But, shrinking the government to much along with deregulaiton could easily lead to the private sector running amuck. And yes we have had examples of that.
There was little or no regulation in 1929 and the private sector took full advantage.
Nearly the same thing happened in 2008 and the only thing that kept it from total
disaster is some of the policies and systems the government had put in place
since 1929. I don't think you would have wanted to see a full blown depression
in this country now.
Personnally I don't trust either the government or the private sector to regulate
themselves. I think it needs to be a combined effort between the two to see
that the social and economic growth in this country and to some extent around
the world travels a much smoohter path than it has in the past.
One thing is certain. Nothing will be accopmplished on either side in the
political environement that exists today. With the private sector trying to
buy elections and the politicans perfectly willing to accept the purchase we
will get nowhere.
buy elections and the politicans perfectly willing to accept the purchase we
DID YOU SOMEHOW FORGET THE UNIONS BUYING ELECTIONS , CRETIN?
YOU KNOW , THE CORRUPT UNIONS THAT OWN OBUMA ?
THE LARGEST VOTING BLOCK OF THE DEMS?
REMEMBER NOW ?
UNIONS ?
RING ANY BELLS?
These cretin just loves to pee on the "private" sector while he sits on his **** collecting his retirement, for sweeping a floor for 20 years !
All on the public dime.
Yes, it's those evil private sector people that run up their overtime the last few years for retirement prposes, who get outrageous benefits for doing menial work for a whopping 20 years !
Wait , no that'a the UNIONS, not the private sector !
THE LIE CLOCK
A man died and went to heaven. As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him..
He asked, 'What are all those clocks?'
St. Peter answered, 'Those are Lie-Clocks.
Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock.
Every time you lie, the hands on your clock will move.'
'Oh,' said the man, 'whose clock is that?'
'That's Mother Teresa's. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie.'
'Incredible,' said the man. 'And whose clock is that one?'
St. Peter responded, 'That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life.'
'Do you have one for President Obama?' asked the man.
Obama's clock is in Jesus' office.
He's using it as a ceiling fan.
So here is a question for you people who are the market watchers
Unemployment above 8% if base number from a year ago were used it would be around 10%
GDP below 2% and if Government spending was taken out probably be zero or below
New job growth not even high enough to cover the new people comming into the market
Industrail backing off
More people than ever on Governament programs.
Europe having its problems
Our debt higher the it has ever been
WHY, is the market at 13,000?
The market won't be happy if Bernanke just promises to keep rates low into 2015 or beyond, especially since his term ends in 2014 and no one on either side believes he'll be renewed. But, if we get a firm commitment on QE3, the S&P could run up to 1500 in pretty short order.
No clear signs on the Euro, so I'll stay on the sidelines for now.
Well, I've got a few hundred hot peppers that need picking, and the pumpkin patch needs to be sprayed, and then I'll spend 3 hours on the mower before lunch. I'm out.
Obuma proved that a black guy, foreign born, with communists beliefs, questionable relationships, a rather funny sounding, Muslim name, and a believer of the anti white/anti America "black theology religion" can become POTUSA.
All through corruption , deception and guise.
All fixed now , cretin
All the Tarp money did was bail bad businesses out of bad debt. Some like Bank of America just used the funds they got to remodel every branch and purchase a couple of smaller banks over seas.
It was just another failed policy of Obama with no accountablity as to where the money was going to go.
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The benchmark average saw an opening loss of 1.2% after Japan's Nikkei tumbled 7.3%. Japanese stocks sold off amid continued volatility in Japanese Government Bond futures as the 10-yr yield spiked almost 16 basis points to 1.002 before the Bank of Japan's JPY2 trillion liquidity injection caused yields to retrace their gains.
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