Are you preparing for a hectic Thursday and Friday?

After a thrilling Monday, the major U.S stock indices presented a choppy session yesterday, closing with an average gain of 0.2%. Even though the start of the session was characterized by mild profit taking, stocks edged up during the day, with the financial sector leading the way. Recent news from European banks has had an enormous impact on the markets, as large caps such as HSBC and Barclays, have shown impressive results for the second quarter. The Financial sector continued higher yesterday, propelled by Monday’s momentum, finishing the session with a gain of 2.02%

Apart from recent good news from Europe, showing signs of improvement within their banking sector, economic data also helped to push the indices higher. Even though personal income showed its biggest decline in four years, dropping by a whopping -1.3%, the personal spending figure shocked investors as the result showed that spending had increased by 0.4% during the month of July. One must note that while income isn’t increasing, consumers are feeling more optimistic and are therefore increasing their spending. Recent figures have also shown the sentiment has dramatically increased, especially as the markets have made an impressive recovery.

In addition, pending home sales jumped by 3.6%, exploding above its expected 0.8%. By taking a glance at the Philadelphia Home index one can see that a sector once battered by the subprime problem is slowly recovering, showing a much better situation.



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Wow I'm totally confused. I wish I also know how to trade stocks. I'm actually a forex trader only.