Tuesday's Market Update (Feb 21, 2023)

22 Feb 2023 by rate3

The trading session on Tuesday was opened with a report by the National Association of Realtors that home sales declined by 0.7% to 4.0 million in January, with the median price of $359,000 increasing by 1.3% from one year ago. This marked the twelfth straight month of decreases, with forecasts predicting 4.1 million sales, and the lowest reading since October of 2010. The East and Midwest regions saw decreases, while the South and the West saw increases.

At the same time, the S&P Global Manufacturing PMI increased to 47.8 in February from 46.9 the previous month, beating forecasts of 47.1. This was another sign that economic conditions were deteriorating at a slower pace than expected, which might give the FOMC a carte blanche to continue its policies for longer than analytics had thought in January.

As a result, the NASDAQ reacted by easing to -1.27% (opening: 11,640, closing: 11,492), while BTC showed non-compliance and struggled to stay above 24.4K (opening: 24,569, closing: 24,465).