The Federal Reserve board is holding a two-day meeting, with the expectation of a 50 basis point cut in interest rates expected for tomorrow. That good showing gave the Dow the kick it needed. The Dow Jones industrial average soared 179.01, or 1.67 percent, to 10,881.20 while the Nasdaq Composite Index was up all of 0.01, essentially not moving at all, to 2,838.35. The Standard and Poor's 500 index gained 9.42, or 0.69 percent, to 1,373.59. With a Fed rate cut coming, investors wanted stocks ready to grow, and tech stocks have made as much as a 30 percent gain in the past month, points out Charles Payne, principal analyst with Wall Street Strategies, in New York.
Most techs are up huge for the month already.
It's tough to chase a lot of these stocks. They've made a lot of moves already in the last three weeks. The Dow has been lagging the Nasdaq for some time, and today it finally started to catch up, he said. Tech stocks today were largely mixed, but it wasn't a down day, which was often the case when the Dow is up, an important change, notes Payne. Now both can trade up in tandem, which suggests to me that some of that sideline money is starting to creep back into the market.