Charlie Ripley

The Federal Reserve raised its target fed funds rate by 0.75% on Wednesday to a new range of between 3% and 3.25%, its third 0.75% rate hike in four months. The Fed said it will continue with its previously announced plan to let Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed...

The Federal Reserve raised its target fed funds rate by 0.75% on Wednesday to a new range of between 2.25% and 2.5%, its second 0.75% rate hike in two months. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) traded higher by 3% on Wednesday afternoon following the rate hike and bullish commentary from...

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) traded higher in a volatile session on Wednesday following the Federal Reserve's largest interest rate hike since 1994. The Federal Open Market Committee opted to raise fed funds rates by 0.75% on Wednesday to a new target range of between 1.5%...

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) traded lower by 0.3% Friday morning after the Labor Department reported disappointing U.S. jobs market numbers from December. The U.S. added 199,000 jobs in December, missing consensus economist estimates of 422,000 jobs. The U.S. unemployment rate fell to...

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) was down 1.9% in midday trading on Tuesday. Tech stocks were hit particularly hard as investors dumped Nasdaq stocks over concerns about rising 10-Year Treasury bond yields. Treasury yields are now near their highest levels since June after the Federal...

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) traded higher by 0.5% on Thursday morning after the Labor Department reported a 5% increase in the consumer price index in the month of May, the fastest inflation growth since the summer of 2008. What Happened: The headline CPI index rose 5% in May,...

The Past Week, In A Nutshell What Happened: Last week ended negative on weakness concentrated in heavily-weighted index constituents. Remember This: “The Fed essentially acknowledged they were a bit behind the curve with their forecast on the economy, as projections needed tweaking to reflect...

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) was trading lower by another 2.1% on Friday morning despite a better-than-expected August jobs report from the Department of Labor. The U.S. economy added 1.37 million jobs in August, topping consensus economist estimates of 1.32 million. In addition, the...

For the 22nd time in the past 23 weeks, the Labor Department reported more than 1 million new weekly U.S. jobless claims on Thursday morning. The Numbers: The Labor Department reported just over 1 million initial jobless claims for the week ending Aug. 22, down from 1.104 million claims reported in...

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) fell last week in the face of growing investor concern about the potential economic fallout from a resurgence in COVID-19 infections.  On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that another 1.48 million Americans filed for unemployment, exceeding...

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY) gained 2.56% on Friday after the Labor Department reported one of the most surprising monthly jobs reports of all time. The U.S. added a record 2.5 million jobs in May, beating consensus economist estimates of an 8.3 million loss. The U.S. unemployment...

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday cut interest rates by 50 basis points, citing rising coronavirus-related risks to economic activity. The Fed lowered its fed fund target rate range from between 1.5% and 1.75% to a new target range of between 1% and 1.25%. Markets initially popped on the news, but...