Wednesday's Market Update (Feb 15, 2023)

16 Feb 2023 by rate3

In the "technicals against fundamentals" war the former prevailed over the later on the Wednesday trading session, again. NASDAQ added 1.4 percent (o:11905, c:12070) while BTC jumped 6.3 (o:22698, c:24145) closing over 24K. Most of the rise came just before a closing bell revealing some individual whale's big play.

It was helped by the Census Bureau reported that January's retails sales were $697.0 billion, or up 3 percent from the previous month (not adjusted for inflation). This number well overshoot market analysts forecasts of 1.8, The biggest rises were seen in department stores' sales (+17.5 percent) and food services (+7.2). That was added by the February's NY Empire State Manufacturing Index climbing up to -5.8 in February, beating market expectations of -18.0 and the NAHB Housing Market index increasing to 42 (forecasts were 37) on the same month.