The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is one of the most important indexes in the United States and it is called the most representative index of the real situation of the American financial market.
The S&P 500, this Tuesday, January 24, 2024, returned to generate gains with a great upward movement and also generated a new historical maximum, taking the price to the 4900 points zone.
However, this great movement could have been caused by different factors generated by information from last week and also by these first days of the fourth week of January 2024, such as macroeconomic data, uncertainties regarding interest rates, information from governmental institutions and financial results reports from some companies.
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To begin with, this price increase could be identified by certain macroeconomic data announced on January 17 and 18, 2024, quite positive for the U.S. economy and for its stability. On Wednesday, retail sales for the month of December 2023 were published, 0.6% against a forecast of 0.4%.
This result was taken by investors with good sentiment and since that announcement, the share price has not stopped rising. On Thursday, new jobless claims were published, 187k against a forecast of 203k . This data continues to demonstrate the stability of employment in the world’s leading economy at the moment.
Also, the other possible cause of the rally we have been seeing could be that investors have lowered their expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin to cut interest rates in the first quarter of 2024. This change in stance is due to data indicating strength in the U.S. economy. Traders now see a 54% chance that the Fed’s first cut will occur in March, down from 77% a week ago.
Another data identified by investors was the positive decision approved by the U.S. Congress last week, releasing the bill to extend the operation of the federal government until March 2024.
In the same way, companies with great weight in the market helped the index of the 500 largest companies in the United States, to continue its new day of gains, such as Netflix, where all eyes were on, as it experienced an increase of more than 10% in its shares after presenting a wonderful quarterly report.
It reached a two-year high due to excellent subscriber and revenue growth, which strengthened investor confidence in the streaming platform. Then there is Microsoft Corporation, up 1.3%, which has reached a historic market valuation of $3 trillion, continuing to be the largest capitalized company in the world.
In conclusion, the S&P 500 index has shown us, year after year, its great growth, independent of its falls, we see how the strongest index in the world recovers and continues to generate historical highs.
