Posted on 09/11/2017 2:22:30 AM PDT by abb
U.S. stock futures shot higher on Monday, as Hurricane Irma hit Florida with less force than expected, while an easing of North Korea tension also boosted appetite for riskier assets such as equities.
Dow Jones Industrial Average futures YMZ7, +0.56% jumped 113 points, or 0.5%, to 21,893, while S&P 500 futures ESZ7, +0.53% rose 12 points, or 0.5%, to 2,473. Nasdaq-100 futures NQZ7, +0.73% gained 32.75 points, or 0.6%, to 5,958.
Forecast to be downgraded to a tropical storm on Monday, Hurricane Irma was expected to keep pushing across Florida and make its way into Georgia. Irma has left at least 4 million accounts without power, while insurance losses in the U.S. alone are estimated to total from $15 billion to $50 billion, according to a report Sunday by risk-assessment firm AIR Worldwide.
Still, the storm was so far presenting less havoc than originally expected. The economic damage — which investors were fretting about in the runup to the storm — could come in less than projected.
Meanwhile, investors may have gotten another break from easing geopolitical tensions. North Korea failed to conduct another missile test over the weekend, as some predicted might happen to mark the anniversary of the country’s founding.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
The storm still did, and is doing, a number on Florida.
The northeast quadrant of a hurricane is the worst one. Up Florida’s nose with a garden hose.
That’s the bad news. The good is that the eyewall is staying close to the coast.
The market is up not because disaster was avoided, but because the market is anticipating a flood of federal money as a result of the storms and quite possibly the reduction in odds that rate hikes will occur later in this year. Imo the thing to watch is the financial sector which will react badly to the news of no rate hikes although the financial sector will react positively *today* ..
.over...time the financials will probably weaken if rate hikes are off the table. Watch XLF, JPM, GS, MS, BAC.
Cuba gets an assist on this one. Irma beat herself up on the north shore of cuba.
Stock market is easily shocked. So volatile.
Volatile but predictive, there’s fixing to be billions of dollars flowing in a bunch of directions, and It may not be over yet! Texas, damn near the whole state of Florida and more weather to come.
If the hurricane was/is so destructive, why are dozens of reporters standing in the middle of the storm broadcasting 24 hours?
It goes up, it goes down. 100 is .5% of the current index. Insignificant. The media always gives a reason for the change. They have no idea what they are talking about.
That is what frustrates me so much . . . reporters and weather stooges looking like idiots standing in knee deep water (sometimes with wired microphones) about to have their hair implants blown off while emboldening low IQ people to think they can ride out storms like this in their flood prone homes. it is everyone’s right to ride it out to protect their property, but it’s not very smart.
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