Stocks Rise Further As Fed’s Inflation Data Stay Quiet, Bitcoin Attract Investors, New York Community Bancorp’s Turmoil Resumes: This Week In The Markets
Equity markets continued their positive momentum, marking another week of gains since the rally began at the end of October 2023, buoyed by diminishing economic concerns.
The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditure price index, fell as expected in January, allaying fears of a fresh acceleration.
The Nasdaq 100, as tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust (NASDAQ:QQQ), soared past the 18,300 mark to achieve an unprecedented high. The S&P 500, as monitored through the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY), surged above 5,100 points, also hitting record highs.
The majority of S&P 500 companies reported their quarterly results: 73% exceeded earnings-per-share expectations and 64% beat revenue projections.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) once again captured the market’s spotlight by surpassing $60,000, marking its strongest performing week since March 2023.
NYCB Stock Plummets
New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) faced a new turmoil as it disclosed a “material weakness” in its internal controls related to loan review processes, compounded by the departure of its CEO. On Friday, the company’s shares dropped over 20%.
Musk Sues OpenAI
Elon Musk sued Sam Altman and OpenAI for allegedly shifting their focus to profit generation for MicrosoftCorp. (NYSE:MSFT), betraying their foundational mission. This lawsuit claimed that the partnership with Microsoft has led OpenAI away from its initial commitment to open-source development in the field of Artificial General Intelligence.
