Sales Continue to Rise as the Stock Market Makes Slight Gains
The US stock markets are up, with weeks of gains for the Dow Jones, indicating a healthy economy that could beat inflation soon.
Before the market opens on Monday, the numbers from the stock market indices are mixed.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is continuing its winning streak, with four weeks of overall gains and a gain of 2.16% last week. That index closed up at 0.32% on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite closed with a slight loss of 0.03%, and the S&P 500 closed up by 0.16%.
These indexes have all posted gains lately, with gains of 1.14% for the Nasdaq Composite for last week and 1.85% for the S&P 500 last week. What may be helping them with these gains is the fact that the Federal Chairmen have essentially said that interest rate cuts are not going to happen this year. That seems highly likely after months of delays on those cuts and no clear timetable set by the Fed for the cuts.
The major factor keeping the Federal Reserve from enacting interest rate cuts is high inflation. The government agency has said repeatedly that they will not consider cuts of this nature until they see inflation heading lower. Most indicators this year so far point toward increasing inflation, but new data for US PPI and US CPI this week could help to shed new light on the problem of high inflation. Or those numbers could simply reinforce what we already know.
Retail Sales Beat Expectations
As retail figures pour in, the US is seeing increased sales in 2024. Most of the companies that have reported sales figures for the year so far have managed to exceed expectations. About 80% of those who have released earnings reports for the year have demonstrated higher than expected sales figures.
That is promising for the economy and shows signs of recovery. Those figures could add to up better inflation data that points toward a strengthening economy for the remainder of 2024, increasing consumer confidence and leading to more stock market investments.
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