After a 4% correction since April 2, the last 3 days have been higher and have earned back most of that drop. “Can they push to new highs” is the question? The economic news has been disappointing this month but I think Ben Bernanke, the stock market’s best friend, once again saved the day by announcing that the Fed stands ready to step in if need be, something that people were beginning to doubt.
European markets have gone in lock step with the U.S. (or is it vice versa) the last two weeks. But, Europe went down more and has not recovered as much. Economic news there has been much worse than the U.S. It is hard to make sense of that performance other than to say that world markets are very connected.
Emerging markets have performed more in line with Europe. Over the last two months the U.S. stock market performance is much better than either Europe or emerging markets. I think that will continue to be the case, though the best emerging market funds have kept up the U.S. market.
Today, gold, oil and bonds were all up. The dollar was lower, as was natural gas, giving back some of the gains from earlier in the week.