Week of 10/30-11/03 The FED Keeps Rates Steady, Bullish Outlook Ahead

The stock market surged on Wednesday after the Federal Reserved announced to keep interest rates steady at least until December. This decision comes from the FED's assessment of economic growth and labor market during this inflationary period. During the FOMC, it was agreed to keep the federal funds rate in the target range of 5.25%-5.5% of which it has been since July. This marks the second consecutive meeting where the FED has elected to hold rates steady, following a series of 11 rate hikes between 2022 and 2023. The positive news was easily digested by investors as the market surged quickly to partially recover the recent losses from past two weeks. The road to 2% interest rates has a long way to go and we are still pending one more FOMC in December to determine further action towards the end of the year. Jerome Powell did make it very clear during the meeting that even though interest rates are not being raised, the FED is not considering or even discussing potential rate reductions at this time. Stock market indexes continued to rise for the rest of the week, including Friday which was mainly driven by better-than-expected October jobs report signaling inflation might be cooling. The biggest earnings report this week came from Apple. The company reported better-than-expected results, but announced a weak revenue growth outlook for the quarter which caused the stock to drop and the tech sector to stall. The market's performance for November will be heavily dependent on economic reports and geopolitical news as we approach the last month of the year.