Stocks surge even though consumers feel lousy. Here's why
CNN
It's a bad news is good news day on Wall Street again. Stocks soared, and are set to finish the week with solid gains, after a key economic report showed a record low in consumer confidence levels.
Investors cheered the drop in the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment reading in June. Why? Growing recession fears may mean that the Federal Reserve, which has begun to aggressively hike interest rates to fight inflation, could reverse course by the end of 2023 and cut rates again in order to deal with a slowing economy.
The Dow surged nearly 700 points, or 2.3%, in late afternoon trading Friday and is now up 2.6% for the holiday-shortened trading week. The US market was closed Monday in observance of Juneteenth.
Senate Democrats have confirmed some of President Joe Biden’s picks for the federal bench this week in the face of President-elect Donald Trump’s calls for a total GOP blockade of judicial nominations – in part because several Republicans involved with the Trump transition process have been missing votes.
Donald Trump is considering a right-wing media personality and people who have served on his US Secret Service detail to run the agency that has been plagued by its failure to preempt two alleged assassination attempts on Trump this summer, sources familiar with the president-elect’s thinking tell CNN.