Thursday’s Market
The U.S stocks closed on at a high for all three major markets by Thursday’s close. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 80.75 points, or 0.6%, to 13,575.36, the S&P 500 Index 10.41 points, or 0.7%, to 1,461.40 and the NASDAQ Composite climbed 14.23 points, or 0.5%, to 3,149.46. This was the fourth consecutive gain for the S&P 500 Index for the week of October 1st and provided a positive atmosphere for the U.S. Labor market a day before the September job report was distributed. Major headlines on Thursday included the anticipation of the September job report, the release of the FOMC meeting minutes, Facebook shares down 2% due to Zynga tumble, and the Treasury yield gap widens.
The positive tone of the U.S. Labor market that was set by the presidential debate and increased number of jobs in the labor market as seemed to set the tone for the market this week. While the minutes from the FOMC meeting forecasted a different approach for the markets but allowed them to maintain a gain. The report states that committee’s ultimate goal up until the end of the year is to maximize employment and stabilize price. They predicted that inflation would run at or below its 2% projective. Most importantly, the committee announced to “increase policy accommodation by purchasing additional agency mortgage-backed securities at 40 billion per month.” According to the article by HenryLiuForex.com, the overall actions of the FOMC should increase the holdings of