Markets wavered throughout the day, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average bouncing between gains and losses, until the minutes from the Federal Reserve's November meeting were released at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Part of the reason for the large swings this week is low trading volume as traders take off for the holidays. When there aren't as many stocks trading and there aren't many market-moving catalysts, the fluctuations can look outsized.
On Wednesday, for example, trading volume on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) was down sharply from its 30-day average. By late afternoon, the fund traded more than 50 million shares, where its 30-day average is more than 92 million shares, according to FactSet data.
In addition to trading volume being low, "the catalysts have been few and far between this week," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial.
That's likely why stocks surged as much as they did around the release of the minutes, which generally confirmed what traders had already suspected — that the central bank anticipates stepping down its rate hikes soon and will most likely raise interest rates by only 0.5 of a percentage point in December.
"You've got a market that's got a very singular focus," on monetary policy, Hogan added.
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario