Financial

Equity markets gained ground on the holiday shortened week, with the S&P 500 Index gaining more than 1 percent. Read more now.

A “Santa Claus” rally brought modest gains to equity markets last week; the S&P 500 was up 0.31 percent. Read more now.

A surge last Friday pushed markets into decidedly positive territory, and most major indices gained more than 1 percent on the week. Read more now.

It was a quiet week for equity markets due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Large-cap stocks drifted lower in slow trading, while small-cap and technology stocks gained some ground. Read more now in this week’s Market Update.

With the 10-year Treasury at 2.937 percent late last week, we’ve seen a considerable selloff—yields are  up from their recent low of 2.385 percent a little more than a month ago. Read more now.

A poor earnings forecast from technology giant Cisco and signs of accelerating inflation in China helped push the equity markets lower last week.

Sector breadth was also poor, as nine out of 10 S&P 500 sectors lost ground. Energy was the only area of growth, buoyed by elevated oil prices.  Read more now.

The Federal Reserve confirmed last week that short-end rates will be low for some time.

With the purchase of $600 billion in Treasuries through the middle of next year, coupled with $300 billion in mortgage runoffs, the Fed is telling us that rates need to be lower.

Read more in our Weekly Market Update.

Equity markets traded sideways in a fairly quiet week last week. Earnings reports continue to come in better than expected. Third-quarter earnings growth has risen 6 percent in four weeks, to about 30 percent year-over-year. Click to read more in our Weekly Market Update.

Equity markets posted modest gains last week, as the pace of earnings reports kicked into high gear.

With increased volatility and counterintuitive moves in stocks that reported strong earnings, it looks to us like some hedge funds are bidding up prices and then flushing their shares in an effort to make money, as opposed to expressing real concerns about future earnings.  Read more now.

The 2-year Treasury started last week at its all-time low of 0.347 percent before moving up later in the week to 0.379 percent. The 10-year was close to its recent low at 2.39 percent early in the week before the week-long selloff took it to 2.493 percent late Thursday.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting notes were released last week, indicating that the pace of the economic expansion has slowed recently and that inflation remains low.  Read about this and more. (PDF, new window)