Indices jump on dovish statements from the Fed

Dec 13th, 2023 – On Wednesday, the Dow Jones increased by 1.4%, closing at 370,090.24. The S&P 500 increased by 1.37%, closing at 4,707.09. Also, the Nasdaq had an increase of 1.38%, closing at 14,733.96. All of them hit their 52-week highs.

The Federal Reserve held the rates steady as expected. For the first time, the Fed admitted that inflation has eased over the past year and they also signaled upcoming rate cuts for 2024. Fed officials see core inflation falling to 3.2% in 2023 and 2.4% in 2024.

The producer price index (which measures inflation before it reaches consumers), reported by the Labor Department, didn’t change from October to November.

Tesla (TSLA) has announced that they are recalling 2 million of their vehicles in the US after a risk regarding the autopilot features was found by auto safety regulators. The company responded by saying that they will add additional controls and alerts to reduce the collision risk related to the found risks. The market reacted to this news with around a 1.6% decline in the price of Tesla shares.

Pfizer (PFE) has faced an almost 9% decrease in its stock price after the drugmaker reported a 2024 revenue and earnings forecast below Wall Street’s expectations. They announced 2024 revenue to be $58 billion to $61 billion compared to Wall Street’s $63 billion estimate.

Portfolio holding Eli Lilly’s (LLY) (0.2 units @582.99) reported detailed results of their study on the obesity drug Zepbound. Results showed that for patients who stopped using Zepbound for over a year, they might slowly regain the weight they lost. On the first day of this announcement, the stock price experienced a 5% decrease; however, some investors also expressed their optimism about the sustainability of the use of the drug. The price showed momentum of recovery with a 4% increase since the announcement day.

Etsy (ETSY) announced that they will be cutting 11% of their workforce due to a challenging macro and competitive environment. Those job cuts will cost the company between $25 million and $30 million. The price of Etsy shares decreased by 6% after the announcement.

We also decided to do some adjustments to our portfolio:

We sold:

  • Lockheed (LMT) (Sell 0.1 units @ $452.36)
  • Northrop Grumman (NOC) (Sell 0.1 units @ $476.76) 

We purchased

  • Symbiotic (SYM) (Purchased 1 unit @ $49.52)
  • Boeing (BA) (Purchased 0.15 units @ $248.79) 
  • Microsoft (MSFT) (Purchased 0.1 units @ $374.44)

Author: Kaan Pinar

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