Global stocks rallied on Friday for a second day on hopes cooler U.S. inflation would lead to less aggressive interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve, an outlook that pushed the dollar to its biggest two-day drop in 13 years.
On Wall Street, stocks rose to add to the prior day’s biggest daily percentage gains for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq in more than 2-1/2 years after year-over-year inflation in October fell below 8% for the first time in eight months.
“We got a potential view that the Fed may not need to get as horrible as we thought over the last couple of weeks,” Marvin Loh, senior global macro strategist at State Street in Boston, said about the market’s exuberance. “Risk could be stabilizing here.” The Fed has no choice but to press on, but if inflation is no longer rising, that indicates the end of more extensive tightening may be near, Loh said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%, the S&P 500 gained 0.92% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.88%. Energy stocks rose more than 3%, buoyed by rising oil prices as China eased some of its Covid-19 restrictions, stoking hopes for a jump in demand.
The banks rose, with ANZ up 1.48%, CBA up 1.7%, NAB up 1.15% and Westpac up 1.99%. Macquarie was up 5.6%. So old world financials did well.
Where as in Crypto Pain land. Sam Bankman-Fried’s digital-asset empire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, capping the downfall of one of crypto’s wealthiest and most influential moguls and his collection of high-flying ventures including exchanges and a massive trading operation.
At his peak, crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was worth $26 billion. At the start of this week, he still had $16 billion. Following the collapse of his crypto exchange FTX and his Alameda Research trading house, his assets in the Bahamas have been frozen by the authorities, he’s being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for potential violations of securities rules, and regulators in Cyprus are poised to suspend his license to operate in Europe. By Thursday, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index was valuing FTX’s US business at $1, down from $8 billion in January. That’s not a typo. One dollar.
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