Market Update | September 14th - September 20th

Welcome back to another market update! Today, we'll first explore our favorite indexes/commodities, then delve into causes of their fluctuation.

To begin, the S&P 500 grew over 1.2% this past week, representing strong growth in the overall economy. The Nasdaq Composite made the S&P 500 his "lil bro" for the week gaining over 2.2%. This represents very strong growth in the tech sector of the US economy. Finally, the Dow Jones also grew over 1% this week completing strong growth for all three major indexes.

Now, moving onto commodities, Oil and Gold fell around .07% remaining relatively stable over the week. Silver, on the other hand, gained about .08% beating out its rival metal for the week.

Cryptocurrency had a rather boring week with the leading crypto, Bitcoin, rising only around .2%. XRP and Solana performed quite the opposite both losing over 1% of their value.

Events

The most important thing that happened this past week was the Fed meeting. When the Fed meets, they decide on how to manage interest rates. Whether that be lowering them, raising them, or keeping them steady. During this Fed meeting, the Fed decided to cut interest rates by a quarter of a percent. Now, I'll go down some of the key points in the meeting. First, there were signs of labor market weakness. During the fed meeting there was mention of slwoing in job gains / labor market loosening, inflation remained "elevated". This tension easily creates uncertainty which causes less investment and fear among investors. Next, the Fed released updated projections indicating that more intereset rate cuts are likely before the end of the year. This propped up the market because as interest rates are lower, people spend more money and therefor keep the economy running well. Now, let's look at Stephen Miran's role in Fed politics. Stephen Miran was appointed to a largley liberal Federal reserve by Trump. He was the only person to vote for a rate cut of .5, which is double of what the Fed ended up doing. This added some uncertainty among investors sensing some tension in the Fed. With rate cuts likely, and tech sectors showing unreal strength, investor sentiment got pretty bullish despite the conflicting events.

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When do you think the Fed will cut rates next?