Friends

As expected, the Federal Reserve did not change monetary policy today. The Fed Funds rate remains the same 4.25% to 4.50% and the Fed Chair emphasized in his press conference that risk remains about equal on both sides of the equation. Remember, the Fed’s mandate is prices and jobs. In their view the risk of higher prices is about equal to the risk of higher unemployment. Thus, the decision to continue to wait and see which one needs to be addressed first.

Stocks tried to rally after the Fed release but gave up most of the gains by the close. For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 44 points to close at 42,171. The S&P 500 was down 1 point to finish the day at 5,980. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 25 points to close at 19,546. Gold was down $20 to trade at $3,386 per ounce, while oil was up $.03 to trade at $74.87 per barrel WTI.

Holy cow there is a lot going on, isn’t there? It really is amazing that the markets aren’t more volatile given the uncertainty in the world today. For now remember that markets are closed for the Juneteenth holiday tomorrow. We’ll be back with you on Friday.

Have a nice evening everyone.