The stock market is in a weird place. It has fallen in most of the trading sessions this month, and the Fear & Greed Index is sitting at 39: right in the middle of “fear” territory.
Clearly investors are a bit rattled. Yet looking at the big picture, stocks are still near record highs. The S&P sat just a bit more than 1% below its all-time peak at Thursday’s close.
The Fed’s two mandates are price stability and maximum employment. And with the shortfall in job growth last month, the latter just isn’t a given yet.
Weighing economic data
“The steep August falloff in consumer sentiment ended in early September, but the small gain still meant that consumers expected the least favorable economic prospects in more than a decade,” said Richard Curtin, chief economist at the Surveys of Consumers.
Another stain on the report: Buying attitudes for durable household goods, or big-ticket household items like refrigerators and air conditioners, dropped to its lowest level since 1980.
There are a lot of moving parts, and with so much in wait-and-see mode, Wall Street is rightly worried — but not overly worried.
It’s a lot to take in: The recovery is in a strange spot, people are concerned about what the winter might bring in terms of the pandemic and valuations are high in a stock market that doesn’t have a decisive driver right now. But experts say the best thing you can do is to keep your money invested.
Source : CNN