“Dow Jones” rises 259 points in response to “Co., Ltd” profits in the first quarter, strong growth!

Reporters reported that the Dow Jones Index continued to rise recently at 11:49 pm Thailand time, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching 38,727.00 points, up 259.00 points or 0.67%, in response to the strong performance of listed companies.

Investors will be watching the earnings of several major companies this week, including Tesla Inc. and Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platform Inc.

20% of S&P 500 companies released their first-quarter 2024 earnings, with 76% of those companies beating analyst estimates.

Federal Reserve (Federal Reserve) The blackout period begins before the Fed holds its monetary policy meeting (FOMC) from April 30 to May 1.

The latest FedWatch tool from CME Group indicates that investors are 99.7% confident that the Fed will keep interest rates at 5.25-5.50% at its April 30-May 1 meeting.

In addition, investors expect the Fed to maintain interest rates at 5.25-5.50% at its June and July meetings. Before cutting interest rates by 0.25% to 5.00-5.25% at the September meeting.

Investors postponed their expectations for the first interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve this year to September. than originally expected in June. After Mr. Jerome Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, expressed his concern about inflation in the United States remaining high.

Investors are awaiting the release of the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index on Friday, which will indicate the direction of US interest rates.

While the PCE index is a measure of inflation that the Fed cares about. Because it can detect changes in consumer behavior and covers the prices of goods and services more broadly than the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Analysts expect the headline personal consumption expenditures index, which includes food and energy categories, to rise 2.6% in March on an annual basis from 2.5% in February on a monthly basis. The general index of personal consumption expenditures is expected to rise by 0.3% in March and 0.3% in February.

As for the Core Personal Consumption Expenditure (Core PCE) index, which does not include the food and energy categories. It is expected to rise by 2.6% in March year-on-year from 2.8% in February. On a monthly basis, the core personal consumption expenditures index is expected to rise by 0.3% in March from also 0.3% in February.