May 19, 2020

Good Tuesday morning,

The bulls ran wild on Wall Street yesterday with all three major stock indices posting impressive gains.  The Dow was the big winner, gaining 911.95 points, or 3.85% for the day.  The S&P 500 and NASDAQ rallied as well, gaining 90.21 (+3.15%) and 220.27 (+2.44%), respectively.  Credited for the rally were the successful Phase 1 results from Moderna showing trial participants developed antibodies against the virus.

This advancement in the development of a vaccine comes on the heels of many states reopening their economies, most on some sort of restricted basis.  The markets saw these as great steps toward the full-scale reopening the U.S. economy.  Another step in that direction is the increase in oil prices in response to rising demand.  The price of a barrel of oil opened this morning at about $33.

Dow futures ended the pre-market about 20 points down, awaiting the testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Powell and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to a Senate sub-committee reporting on the CARES Act.  The question at hand is whether the Fed need to continue pumping money into the economy, and if so, how is that best accomplished.

Stay tuned, this should be a very busy week.