Sector Watch: Pulling Petals

Equity benchmark movements appear to reflect uncertainty over future rate moves by the Fed, as if investors were pulling petals from a daisy hoping to arrive at a conclusion. Last Thursday, after the release of a slightly encouraging Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for July, the S&P 500 powered ahead by 1.3%, only to surrender most of that advance following comments by Mary Daly, President of the San Francisco Fed, indicating that the bank has “more work to do” to combat inflation.