US stocks were dealt a minor setback yesterday, with tech shares leading the drop after scaling to record highs to start the week on Monday. Fed chair Powell didn't offer all too much in the end with investors now still needing to defer to US economic data to reaffirm their market pricing on the Fed outlook.
Barring any major reversal though, US indices look poised to score five consecutive monthly gains to wrap up September. The last such run was also from May to September but during last year.
Even at lofty highs now, there doesn't seem to be too much that can hurt the momentum for equities. Investor appetite and foreign demand for US assets remains solid, at least according to what the data is telling us. And at this stage, it will take either a sudden rebound in jobs or a pick up in inflation (or arguably perhaps both) to really derail the market optimism.
Otherwise, investors seem confident enough to keep falling back on the Fed put. That even if we do get some modest selling or correction at some point.
If you're trying to rationalise everything about the market, I came across this little quip the other day. And perhaps it really is just that simple in understanding the dip buying during this ongoing AI boom.
