all

Dow Up for Third Consecutive Week


Friday, February 18th, 2011
News

On Wednesday, the US markets rose on the Federal Reserve projections indicating that growth in 2011 would be between 3.4 percent to 3.9 percent, in comparison to the previous projections set between 3 percent and 3.6 percent. As a result, the Dow closed on Wednesday up almost 62 points.

As the week progressed, investors were eagerly awaiting the latest jobless data as well as the latest consumer price index. While the data indicated that a higher than expected amount of new unemployment benefits claims, the manufacturing data posted by Case New Holland and Caterpillar Inc. eclipsed the discouraging news. On the data released by these companies, markets finished up 73.11 points to close at 12.391.25. The S&P 500 index rose by 2.58 points to 1,343.01, and the Nasdaq composite was up 2.37 at 2,833.95 according to ABC news.

Notably, the Dow Jones industrial average has only fallen on three Days in the month of February, and all of the aforementioned exchanges are up close to 7 percent on the week. Additional reports show that nearly 70 percent of the Standard and Poor’s 500 firms are beating projections on their earning reports.

Currently leading the Dow is Caterpillar Inc., which rose by 2.4 percent due to increased volume of sales in heavy construction and mining equipment. These products have risen in sales close to 49 percent in the past month.

In the global economy, the G20 met today in Paris to discuss issues affecting the global markets. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated in a speech at the conference that countries with considerable trade surpluses should let their currencies rise in order to prevent a double-dip global recession. This statement was clearly directed at China. In reference to the United States, Bernanke also indicated that countries with trade deficits must decrease government spending.

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LF8PIG0.htm

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110217-705312.html

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article26387.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12952693

 



Article by Andrew Timm

The views expressed are the subjective opinion of the article's author and not of FinancialAdvisory.com



Tags: bernanke , caterillar , china , dow , g20 , government spending