Another Bumpy Day

There’s no question that the stock market has been volatile so far this year.  In fact, in the first quarter of 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had 35 days with triple-digit point moves and the S&P 500 had 31 days with a move of more than 1%.

Today’s action was no different.  The day started strong, with a better than expected rise in the GDP of .6%.  The was followed by the expected .25% rate cut by the Federal Reserve.  The end result was that the Dow reached a peak of roughly 13010 at little after two o’clock.  After the Fed cut was absorbed and a few more earnings, reports came out, the Dow closed at 12820.13.  For the day, the Dow  had a range from 12808.98 to 13010.00, for a swing of 201.02 points.

It looks like the Fed will now take a breather from the interest rate cuts that have trimmed a total of 3.25%  off rates since September.

With the summer months, which are generally fairly volatile, fast approaching, prepare for this seesaw up and down motion to happen for a little while longer.

As we always tell clients, as long as your portfolio is allocated the way it should be, although unnerving, these wide fluctuations are not unprecedented, nor are they particularly detrimental to your portfolio.

Hang in there.  This too shall pass.

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Federal Reserve Trying to Hold Off Recession

The Federal Reserve today, in an attempt to improve conditions in the credit markets and, hopefully, help the economy avoid recession, opened its coffers and made $200 Billion (with a ‘B’) of highly-liquid U.S. Treasuries available to primary dealers, secured for 28 days. It also significantly expanded the types of securities that can be used as collateral for loans, allowing them to swap mortgage notes it can’t sell for government securities that can easily be sold to raise cash.

The hope from the Fed is that this action will bring some normalcy to a credit market that has all but dried up in recent months and that this cash infusion will allow banks to lend money to keep the economy moving.

The financial markets have responded well to this latest move, with the Dow, NASDAQ and S&P all up more than 3.5% today.

The other positive aspect of this move is that, unlike a broad interest rate cut, this strategic bump helps a specific portion of the market without stoking the fear of increased inflation.

Finally, to its credit, the Fed is being pro-active in addressing issues caused by the sub-prime meltdown and is using every tool in its arsenal to both (hopefully) contain and minimize the long-term impact.

Stay tuned to see how this plays out.