D&D Note (3.21.2018) ~ FED Threads the Needle and Zuckerberg Speaks #StockMarket #FED #RateHike #Facebook ~

D&D Note (3.21.2018) ~ FED Threads the Needle and Zuckerberg Speaks ~

Today was new FED Chairman J. Powell’s first FOMC meeting and press conference. The FED as expected raised rates a quarter percent. They signaled they are still on pace for 3 hikes this year. The 10YR note briefly hit 2.9% but fell back down to settle at 2.883%. Markets moved up and down and ultimately closed roughly flat although down on the day.

Chair Powell in his press conference did a good job of threading the needle to not spook markets. Interestingly he appeared perhaps more “human” than previous Chairs. Keep in mind Powell is not an economist so provides a new fresh view from the FED.

Towards the end of the day Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg finally spoke out on the Cambridge Analytica data via a nearly 1,000 word post on his Facebook page. All in all D&D now has possibly more questions on how many other situations like this are out there and not known that happened before the 2014 FB privacy policy change.

For trading D&D took profits in GOOG and flipped those into RDS.A. Oil found a healthy bid today and led us to re-enter into the Energy sector after being out of it for a few years when we closed out of our previous position in Royal Dutch Shell.

The markets are still looking for leadership and today was a good sign of what sectors could be poised to take the lead. Both Financials and Energy performed well on the day while Tech suffered.

D&D movers:

– WNS up 2.36%

– RDS.A up 2.04%

– TWMJF up 1.68%

– CNTTF up 1.34%

– TCEHY down -3.01%

– APHQF down -2.80%

– MO down -2.47%

– AAPL down -2.27%

Indexes

– DOW down -0.18%

– NASDAQ down -0.26%

– S&P down -0.18%

Sector Movers:

– Energy up 2.63%

– Materials up 1.11%

– Industrials up 0.12%

– Consumer Staples down -1.32%

– Real Estate down -0.93%

– Telecom down -0.84%

Notes

– US 2-YR 2.303% (down -0.034)

– US 10-YR 2.883% (up 0.002)

– US 30-YR 3.111% (down -0.001)

Volatility

– VIX 17.12 (down -5.93%)

Crypto (1:00 PST)

– BTC $8,880.01

– ETH $560.40

– BCH $1,028.48

– LTC $170.39

Metals

– Gold $1,334.80 up 1.75%

– Silver $16.61 up 2.63%

– Copper $3.0855 up 1.56%

Energy

– Oil $65.46 up 3.01%

– Brent $69.77 up 3.49%

– Nat Gas $2.644 down -1.16%