The Federal Reserve released its most recent “Beige Book” today. The summary on current economic conditions by the Fed indicated that “economic activity has increased in most regions & consumer spending rose in most districts.”
The business activity snapshot further complicates the Federal Open Market Committee’s process of determining whether or not to raises interest rates again this year. The prevailing thought is the Fed might consider taking on an additional rate hike this year.
As CNBC put it:
“As markets dipped and recession fears grew, the chance of the next Fed rate hike at one point was pushed into early 2018. However, that has reversed significantly over the past few days.”
See more below.
The markets also got a boost from another rise in the price of oil. Crude finished up 26 cents, or 0.76 percent, at $34.66 a barrel- it’s best close since January 5th.
After yesterday’s big gains many expected the markets to drop today. USB’s Art Cashin explains why that didn’t happen.
Here are the final numbers from Wednesday, 3/2/16 on Wall Street
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 16,899.32 (+34.24 / +0.20 %)
NASDAQ: 4,703.42 (+13.83 / +0.29 %)
S&P 500: 1,986.45 (+8.10 / +0.41 %)
