Thursday, August 30, 2012

Markets Edge Closer to Reality on Eve of Bernanke Speech

As has been ongoing for the whole week, markets took a decided turn negative today on strong sentiment and comments from a few Fed governors that Ben Bernanke's speech tomorrow at Jackson Hole will include no overt nor hidden message that the Fed is ready to commit to another round of QE, bond purchases or any kind of policy easing.

That's the current betting, and there's little more than that moving markets.

Here is a good summary of what Wall Street is expecting in advance of the speech, from the Wall Street Journal, along with excerpts from analysts from leading financial institutions.

Scheduled for 10:00 am EDT, the Fed Chairman's speech, "Monetary Policy Since the Crisis" has had the markets gripped for weeks.

At the very least, by 11:00-11:30 tomorrow, everyone will have an inkling of what the Fed plans to do, if anything, and possibly when.

Then, everything can return to normal - whatever that is - after the Labor Day holiday.

Dow 13,000.71, -106.77 (0.81%)
NASDAQ 3,048.71, -32.47 (1.05%)
S&P 500 1,399.48, -11.01 (0.78%)
NYSE Composite 7,966.24, -65.41 (0.81%)
NASDAQ Volume 1,218,830,750
NYSE Volume 2,534,874,500
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ Advance - Decline: 1481-3987
Combined NYSE & NASDAQ New highs - New lows: 118-54
WTI crude oil: 94.62, -0.87
Gold: 1,657.10, -5.90
Silver: 30.37, -0.47

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