Ahead of a bevy of corporate earning reports this week, stocks moved back and forth on the first trading day of the week with investors on Wall St. waiting to see just how robust the U.S. economy is in the final quarter of 2015. Over the weekend, investors were also curious about comments from Federal Reserve committee members, as they continue to seek clues as to when the Fed might raise rates.
Yesterday Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said:
“U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers are still likely to raise interest rates this year but that is an expectation, not a commitment, and could change if the global economy pushes the U.S. economy further off course.”
And today, Atlanta’s Fed chief Dennis Lockhart said in a Reuters report:
“There could be sufficient economic data for the Fed to consider a rate hike at their meeting later in October but there will be a lot more data on hand in time for the December meeting.”
The Nasdaq closed above its 50-day average for the first time since Aug. 17th. The Dow & S&P 500 closed above their 50-day averages last week and have remained above.
Here are the final numbers from Monday, 10/12/15 on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17,131.79 (+47.30/ +0.28%)
NASDAQ: 4,838.64 (+8.17/ +0.17%)
S&P 500: 2,017.44 (+2.55 / +0.13%)