Wednesday's Markets Update (Feb 1, 2023)

02 Feb 2023 by rate3

Despite Powell reiterating his previous statements that the interest rate won't go down soon (at least until the end of this year) and that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will hike it a minimum of two more times, markets decided that a 0.25% rise was enough good news and continued to rise.

As a result, the NASDAQ gained 2.0% (opening at 11573 and closing at 11816) and Bitcoin (BTC) added 2.3% (opening at 22979 and closing at 23573) during the seven-hour session. BTC continued to rise in after-hours trading, reaching a top of 24253. However, this was not accompanied by an increase in trading volumes, which might indicate that the same group of players that started the rally is carrying on without support from retail traders.

On the fundamental side, there is not much positive news either. The ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) underperformed, decreasing to 47.4 despite being expected to be 48, and the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) overperformed, showing 11,012 new jobs despite only being expected to be 9.5 million by analysts.