Month: August 2021

Markets closed the month of August moving sideways, but capped another bullish month of gains. The day started with investors swarming defensive sectors, but sentiment flipped, and the sector list scrambled.

Technology stocks rallied today after the Fed expressed a dovish stance toward tapering and interest rate hikes on Friday. Cyclical sectors faded while growth sectors dominated the top of the sector list.

A dovish stance from the Fed’s Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium sent stocks higher today. Gains were broadly shared across the market, with small caps leading the way. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed at record highs.

Indexes moved lower for the first time in several days as investors became defensive after slightly higher than expected jobless claims data.

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 had another set of record closes while the small-cap Russell 2000 continues to outperform as the market heads higher. Economic news was slightly bullish , with core durable goods and crude oil inventories showing more demand than expected.

Small-caps led the markets higher for another day, giving indexes their fourth day of gains after last week’s dip. Even meme stocks were back in play with huge gains from GME and AMC .

On Monday, the market turned optimistic after the FDA fully approved Pfizer’s vaccine, adding a third day of gains off of last week’s pivot low and ending with a record for the Nasdaq. Gains were broadly shared across stocks, and the defensive sectors dropped to the bottom of the sector list.