With bargain hunters finally stepping in, US and European futures are trading higher today. The truth of the matter is that 2022 wasn’t a fantastic year for the stock market in the United States as inflation reached its highest level in forty years, and the Federal Reserve raised interest rates at their most hawkish pace in recent history. Nevertheless, in spite of all that has happened, we have seen the economic indicators performing better than forecast. For instance, yesterday, we saw the US Consumer Confidence smashing all estimates and printed the reading of 108 where the forecast was for 101. This is certainly a highly positive sign for the US stock market and stimulated more confidence among investors and traders.
The US stock market recorded another day of decent gains yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased by 526.74 points during normal trading on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite each jumped by 1.49% and 1.54%, respectively.
It was mainly the energy sector that led the gains for the S&P 500 index yesterday, and all the 11 S&P 500 sectors closed in positive territory. Traders also felt a lot more confident on the back of the fresh earnings numbers from Nike and FedEx, which came the day before yesterday and drove up their share prices. Basically, stronger-than-expected earnings numbers are giving investors reason to believe that profits are holding up rather well despite fears about an economic slowdown.
Today, Micron Technology’s stock price could see a volatile session. The company’s share price declined by 2% in the extended trading hours yesterday when it reported its earnings and missed the estimates. The company reported unsatisfactory profits for its fiscal first quarter and announced intentions to reduce its staff by approximately 10%.
Micron Technology reported a loss for the quarter of four cents per share on sales of four billion and nine hundred million dollars. Market players had anticipated a loss of 1 cent per share on sales of $4.11 billion. A loss of 62 cents per share is expected for the current term, which is below what Wall Street had predicted for the business. A loss of thirty cents was forecast by the analysts.
Gold
The precious metal is trading higher and, more importantly, trading above the critical price level of 1,800 as the dollar index continues to move lower. Looking at the gold’s price action now, one thing becomes clear, and that is traders do not believe that the Fed is going to remain aggressive in relation to its monetary policy. However, most of the Fed members have said that there is a strong need to continue at the current pace to tame inflation. However, market players continue to think differently. This could create a shock going into 2023.
Overall, the path of the least resistance when it comes to gold prices continue to remain on the upside, and it is most likely that gold prices will continue to consolidate above the 1,800 price level. Or, we may even see a slow grind to the upside.
Bitcoin
BTC prices are highly sensitive, and many traders are concerned about the current consolidation pattern that is taking place for the BTC. This is because the BTC price has recently failed to break above the resistance of 18K, a level lower than the previous resistance of 20K. Now the fact that the price continues to consolidate near the 16.5K price mark makes traders believe that there are stronger chances for a move that could push the price even lower than 15K.