It’s another day in the market and, with stocks up today, investors are once again feeling the animal spirits come back into play. Indeed, all three major indices are up, with the Nasdaq leading the way higher, rising more than 1% in early afternoon trading.
Top tech stocks appear to be driving most of the market’s outsized move today, with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) both surging more than 4% today and Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) remaining up around 1% after giving up some of this morning’s gains.
So, momentum is creeping back into the market. Here are a few catalysts driving stocks higher today — and what investors may want to continue watching this week.
Why Are Stocks Up Today?
It appears, at least to me, that the market narrative is shifting somewhat from a Federal Reserve focus toward fundamentals. For certain tech companies that have continued to produce stellar results, this is a good thing.
The market is once again rewarding growth expectations — and seemingly pricing in higher expectations — as the economy continues to find its footing in this high interest rate environment. To some degree, the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting this week may not have as big an impact on stocks as it has in the past. For investors, that’s a positive backdrop to continue buying heading into this meeting.
Personally, I was expecting to see more caution ahead of the Fed meeting, given higher-than-expected inflation readings of late. This could lead the Fed to take a more hawkish tone in its meeting, driving bond yields and interest rates even higher.
But with the U.S. 10-Year Treasury currently trading at a yield of around 4.34% at the time of this writing, it appears stocks can move independently of the Fed and its monetary policy commentary. For now, that’s a bullish enough signal for investors to continue putting money into equities.
On the date of publication, Chris MacDonald did not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
