Labor market tightness is another factor that has to be moving the Fed clan toward the hawkish side of the interest rate fulcrum. Average hourly earnings are creeping higher and big layoff announcements are absent from the daily newswires. Employee layoffs have dropped like a rock since the summer of last year. Lastly, with the US census quickly upon us, the pressure on the per unit cost of bodies can only increase. You may have heard that one of the best performing indices this year is the Dow Jones Utilities.
Market participants are worried and buying utilities.
Of course this perma-bull strategist was arguing that the market was bound to go higher as there was too much pessimism as reflected by the move in the utilities. Again, the move in a select few 'Net and tech issues are carrying the day for the Russell. The other 1950 stocks are simply asleep or continuing to hyperventilate due to lack of liquidity. The movement in the averages and the indices probably means less for the broad market than it has in decades. Without tech, the NAZ and the Russell were plainly in a depression.