00:00 Brad
About two hours into the start of trading, let’s go live to the Nasdaq to get a read on the biggest factors moving markets today. Joining us now is Yahoo Finance’s Ali Canal.
00:12 Ali Canal
Hi Brad, well, I’m on record watch here, particularly for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite because we are currently trading above those all-time highs. And as a refresher here, the S&P 500 needs to close above 6,144 to notch a new record. That was the peak back in December, and then the Nasdaq’s aiming for 20,174, which would be ahead of its all-time high that we saw in mid-December. So again, we are easily on track to hit those highs. Of course, these gains will have to hold here, but really just a stunning and historic bounce back for stocks since those April lows. And here’s what’s helping boost markets today. The main catalyst: positive trade developments. We now have a deal with China on the table and now Bloomberg also reporting that the European Union and the US are optimistic that they could reach their own trade deal before that July 9th deadline. That’s when Washington plans to slap 50% tariffs on almost all EU products, and the EU has said that they are ready to respond with their own countermeasures. Bloomberg referring to a closed-door summit that happened on Thursday with EU leaders who said there’s a confidence there that a deal could be struck to avoid that costly trade war. Meanwhile, we did see some fresh economic data earlier this morning. We had PCE painting a more stagflationary picture, but consumer sentiment saw a boost in June. The index coming in at 60.7 for June. That’s up from 52.2 in May and slightly beating expectations. The survey did cover a pretty turbulent time. We saw various protests across the US when it comes to immigration policies, but economists now saying that the initial shock from Trump’s tariff announcements, that has diminished. Still, we have confidence that remains about 20% lower than December 2024 levels as consumers continue to navigate a lot of these uncertainties. And to that point, the Fed has said that we should see some tariff-related price hikes later this summer. So confidence, you know, can be choppy perhaps over this summer. Uh, we could see some choppiness, more volatility in markets as well as earnings season is about to ramp up. Maybe if we don’t see, uh, what we saw in the first quarter, that could lead to some hesitancy in this market. But for now, stocks really looking past a lot of this noise and trading at those record highs, Brad.
04:02 Brad
All right, Ali, we’re going to continue to track this throughout the rest of today’s trading session. Thank you.
发表回复