Jerome Powell must have been very upset that the S&P 500 index ended Thursday in the red and wanted to make sure the index did not have two losing days in a row.
During his video speech, Powell reaffirmed his commitment to easy money as the economy continues to recover from the novel coronavirus. Although the index was already in the green before the speech, his dovish comments immediately jolted the index higher and pushed selling pressure on the US dollar.
Following a weak close on Thursday, the index breached Thursday’s low (4465), falling to 4462.25 in premarket trading and began to rebound. By the open of the regular session, the index was higher by 8 handles and went straight up from the opening bell. By day’s end it was higher by 39 handles to close at 4505.50 and made a new all-time closing high by 12.50 handles.
Leading the index higher was Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB), which has nearly recouped all its post-earnings losses added $8.02 or 2.2% to close at $372.02. That was over double the percentage gain of the index which added .92%.
The only top component in the red and not by much was Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) closing down only $0.29 at $173.01.
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