Bernanke Inspires a New Stock Market All-Time High

By: PhilStockWorld

Courtesy of Doug Short. Pre-market futures were on a tear, and today’s rise unemployment claims scarcely mattered. Today’s rally in US equities is universally attributed to Chairman Bernanke’s comments following his somewhat wonkish speech to economists in Cambridge, MA yesterday after the market closed. In response to a question, Bernanke said that “highly accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future is what’s needed.” That, along with similar dovish remarks, triggered a rise in equity futures and a cliff-dive in US Dollar futures.

The S&P 500 surged from the gate and glided higher with a renewed wave of buying in the afternoon on an unexpectedly large surplus of 116.5B in the US budget. The index closed the day with a gain of 1.36% to a new all-time high. Coincidentally the $USD index dropped 1.36%. The US Treasury logged the 10-year closing yield at 2.60%, 10 bps below yesterday’s close.

Here’s a 15-minute look at the week so far.

Today’s Bernanke-engineered rally is a clear reversal of selloff triggered by his press conference on June 19th following the last FOMC meeting. Today’s rally wasn’t accompanied by a surge in volume, which was 2% below its 50-day moving average.

The S&P 500 is now up 17.45% for 2013 at a new all-time high.

For a better sense of how these declines figure into a larger historical context, here’s a long-term view of secular bull and bear markets in the S&P Composite since 1871.

- Phil

www.philstockworld.com

Philip R. Davis is a founder of Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com), a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders. Mr. Davis is a serial entrepreneur, having founded software company Accu-Title, a real estate title insurance software solution, and is also the President of the Delphi Consulting Corp., an M&A consulting firm that helps large and small companies obtain funding and close deals. He was also the founder of Accu-Search, a property data corporation that was sold to DataTrace in 2004 and Personality Plus, a precursor to eHarmony.com. Phil was a former editor of a UMass/Amherst humor magazine and it shows in his writing -- which is filled with colorful commentary along with very specific ideas on stock option purchases (Phil rarely holds actual stocks). Visit: Phil's Stock World (www.philstockworld.com)

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