J.M. Smucker Is Up, But Rest of Stock Market Soft After Minutes of Last Fed Meeting Released The stock market wasn't sure what to make of the minutes to the last Federal Reserve Board meeting released this afternoon.
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The minutes of the last Federal Reserve Board clearly indicate that Fed members are worried enough about the global economy and the financial markets that another interest rate hike anytime soon seems unlikely. They also expect to end their balance sheet reduction program -- effectively easing monetary conditions -- by the end of the year. That's good news!
On the other hand, these are some of the smartest, most deliberate economists in the country ...and they're worried.
Stock prices see-sawed for most of the day but a small rally after the Fed minutes were released helped the Dow and S&P 500 indexes post gains of 0.24 percent and 0.18 percent respectively. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up just 0.03 percent. Weakness in technology stocks and REITs pulled the Entrepreneur Index™ down 0.17 percent today.
J.M. Smucker Company had a sweet 2.82 percent gain -- the biggest on the Entrepreneur Index™ today. The food-maker presented at an investor conference today and confirmed guidance slightly above consensus estimates for the coming year. The stock is up 14.5 percent this year.
The technology sector came off its mid-day lows, but still lagged the broader market. Facebook, (0.17 percent) was the only FAANG stock on the index to post a gain. TripAdvisor Inc. (-1.83 percent) and salesforce.com, (-1.29 percent) had the biggest declines. Chip-makers NVIDIA Corp. (1.22 percent) and Analog Devices, (2.49 percent) had the biggest gains in the sector.
Oil and gas producer Hess Corp. was up 1.82 percent as the price of oil rose 1.44 percent on the day. Other significant gains included asset manager BlackRock, (1.43 percent), Ford Motor Co. (1.25 percent), and truck-maker PACCAR Inc. (1.2 percent).
Walmart gave back all of the gains it had yesterday after reporting good earnings results. The stock was down 2.27 percent today.
The real estate sector was the weakest in the market today. All nine REIT stocks on the Entrepreneur Index™ were down, with many off more than one percent. Extra Space Storage, down 3.14 percent, had the biggest loss on the index today. It will report earnings after the market close.
Homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc. also fell 1.39 percent on the day and Tesla was down 1.01 percent. The carmaker lost another senior executive today, as General Counsel Dane Butswinkas left after just two months on the job.
The Entrepreneur Index™ collects the top 60 publicly traded companies founded and run by entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit is a valuable asset for any business, and this index recognizes its importance, no matter how much a company has grown. These inspirational businesses can be tracked in real time on Entrepreneur.com.
