Weekly Market Commentary

The market rallied last week, buoyed by the possibility that the pace of Fed rate increases may be slowing. Fed Chair Jerome Powell signaled smaller rate hikes going forward, but for a longer duration.

Markets rallied in a shortened Thanksgiving trading week, with the S&P 500 Index finishing above the 4000 level for the first time in two months. Positive earnings reports in retail and tech and signs that the Fed is going to slow the pace of rate increases, helped market sentiment.

Stocks gave up some ground this week after last week's inflation-data-infused rally. Growth stocks lagged value shares. Energy shares sold off on peak inventory levels for oil and gas in Europe.

What a difference a good CPI print can make! Markets celebrated Thursday morning's release of the Consumer Price Index data for October. Headline CPI rose 0.4% in October, which was less than consensus expectations for a 0.6% increase, which plots CPI at 7.7% year-over-year.

Markets initially rallied on Wednesday after the Fed statement indicated it might slow down its pace of rate increases, only to reverse after some hawkish comments in the press conference. As expected, the committee raised rates by 75 bps.

Last week was a tale of two markets, with gains for the DJIA putting it on track for its best October ever with its fourth positive week in a row, while mega-cap tech names took a beating reminiscent of the dot-com bust of the early 2000s.