This time, however, the halt after 10 straight hikes comes with a big caveat: Policymakers expect rates will rise further. That would suggest more of a “skip” than a “pause” — a very different scenario. But don’t tell that to investors who last week pushed the S&P 500 to a fifth straight week of gains, its longest winning streak since 2021.
From June 12’s close through trading June 16, the S&P 500 jumped 0.9 per cent, the best showing since February from a Fed decision day to the weekend, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That pushed the index’s rally since October’s closing low to 23 per cent and left it about eight per cent below its all-time high. On June 15, the volume of call options on the S&P 500 Index jumped to a record.
“There’s a difference between a pause and a skip, and we could be underestimating how meaningful that is,” Gina Martin Adams, chief equity strategist at BI, said on Bloomberg Radio.Article content There’s a difference between a pause and a skip, and we could be underestimating how meaningful that isEquity bulls are getting some encouragement from headline inflation data. U.S. consumer prices rose four per cent in May from a year earlier, the slowest pace since 2021, according to data released last week. To be sure, the core reading has been stickier. Also last week, separate figures showed the longer-term trend of slowing goods consumption continues.