The forward march of US equities took a break just a day after they soared to previously unseen levels. The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average both dipped, while the Nasdaq, which wasn’t a part of the celebrations a day earlier, gained some ground and finished higher.
Economic indicators from the US are said to be pointing towards a marginal improvement. Business activity was shown to have expanded slightly in the month of September, a growth unseen in the past couple of years. Home sales are also on the rise with a rise in August not seen since the early part of 2007. Another gauge of economic activity demonstrated that the US is indeed on course for an economic recovery, despite recent evidence to the contrary. The only piece of negative information being a rise in weekly jobless claims that has been blamed on a switch to a new software platform.
Gold is also speaking volumes of late. It railed to a 15 month high due to investors speculating that the Fed’s monetary strategy will ultimately lead to inflation.
JP Morgan Chase will be paying out 1.3 billion dollars today. The biggest portion of this money is related to the much publicised London Whale scandal. The bank initially underplayed the gravity of the London Whale situation but now admits to its mistakes. The rest of this1.3 billion figure will cover fines resulting from unfair credit card billing procedures. JP organ Chase stocks, quite predictably, are down, with many suggesting that this is only the beginning for the bank.
Wells Fargo, the largest mortgage lender in the United States, will be laying off more than 1800 workers in its mortgage division as the demand for home loans continues to fall.
Today’s trades: binary options CALL trades on Gold, S&P 500 and the Dow are looking good intra day. Binary options PUT trades on any currency pair in which USD is the base, as well as JP Morgan Chase stock also looking good intra day.
