S&P 500 closed Wednesday 9/17 at 6600, down 0.1% for the day, and up 12.2% YTD. Wimpy quarter point interest rate cut [View all]
Last edited Wed Sep 17, 2025, 05:19 PM - Edit history (167)
Year to date (YTD) is from the Dec 31 closing level.
Treasury 10 Year yield: 4.08%, up .05 percentage points for the day (12 days ago it was 4.18%) https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5ETNX/
near its lowest levels of the year.
Market news of the day: https://finance.yahoo.com/
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/live/stock-market-today-sp-500-nasdaq-slip-as-federal-reserve-ushers-in-first-rate-cut-of-2025-200042050.html
Scroll down to see earlier in the day reports
The Federal Reserve officials voted to cut the interest rate 0.25%, as widely anticipated and already priced in by the markets. It was the first cut since December.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said during a press conference that the Fed decision was a "risk management cut" as the labor market has been deteriorating against a backdrop of elevated inflation.
In addition to the rate cut, Fed policy makers also signaled two more rate cuts this year.
Newly confirmed Fed governor Stephen "not a moron" Miran, nominated by Trump, was the only dissent, wanting a 50 basis point cut, instead of 25 ((just a half-point? tRump wants a 3 point cut -Progree). Meanwhile Lisa Cook took part in the policy decision after an appeals court rebuffed Trump's attempt to oust the Fed governor.
On the corporate front, China has told its biggest tech companies including Alibaba not to buy the Nvidia (NVDA) AI chip tailor-made for the country, effectively banning tens of thousands of orders, the Financial Times reported. Nvidia shares dropped nearly 3%.
Back to the rate cut -- Fed officials have also had to take into account elevated levels of inflation in recent weeks. --
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Yeah no kidding
The CPI rise averaged 3.5% over the past 3 months on an annualized basis (core CPI: 3.6%)
The August one month increase annualized is: CPI: 4.7%, (core CPI: 4.2%)
More from where the graphs came from: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143528031#post12
Yes, Virginia, there is a growing inflation problem.
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The S&P 500 closed Wednesday September 17 at 6600, down 0.1% for the day,
and up 14.1% from the 5783 election day closing level,
and up 10.1% from the inauguration eve closing level,
and up 12.2% year-to-date (since the December 31 close)
S&P 500
# Election day close (11/5/24) 5783
# Last close before inauguration day: (1/17/25): 5997
# 2024 year-end close (12/31/24): 5882
# Trump II era low point (going all the way back to election day Nov5): 4983 on April 8
# Several market indexes: https://finance.yahoo.com/
# S&P 500: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/history/
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I'm not a fan of the DOW as it is a cherry-picked collection of just 30 stocks that are price-weighted, which is silly. It's as asinine as judging consumer price inflation by picking 30 blue chip consumer items, and weighting them according to their prices. But since there is an automatically updating embedded graphic, here it is. It takes several, like 6 hours, after the close for it to update, like about 10 PM EDT.
(If it still isn't updated, try right-clicking on it and opening in a new tab. #OR# click on https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI/ ).
The Dow closed Tuesday at 45,758, and it closed Wednesday at 46,018, a rise of 0.6% (260 points) for the day
I don't maintain statistics for the DOW like percent up or down since election day, or year-to-date, or from the all-time high etc. like I do for the S&P 500.
https://finance.yahoo.com/
DOW: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI/
. . . . . . https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EDJI/history/
DOW
# Election day close (11/5/24) 42,222
# Last close before inauguration day: (1/17/25): 43,488
# 2024 year-end close (12/31/24): 42,544
DJIA means Dow Jones Industrials Average. It takes about 6 hours after the close to update, so check it after 10 PM EDT
I don't have an embeddable graph for the S&P 500, unfortunately, but to see its graph, click on https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EGSPC/
While I'm at it, I might as well show Oil and the Dollar:
Crude Oil
US Dollar Index (DX-Y.NYB)
If you see a tiny graphics square above and no graph, right click on the square and choose "load image". There should be a total of 3 graphs. And remember that it typically takes about 6 hours after the close before these graphs update.
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