The DC Today - Wednesday, February 7, 2024
The Dividend Cafe
The Dividend Cafe - The Bahnsen Group
4.9 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/42zrukM
A consistently positive trading day in markets today without a lot of new economic data out, but I suppose no news is good news, so we’ll take it. We did have a widening trade deficit data released today roughly in line with expectations but I am intentionally keeping this intro short and sweet today to tee up the more meaty sections in the this podcast.
Links mentioned in this episode: TheDCToday.com DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the DC Today, your daily market synopsis of the Dividing Cafe, brought to you every Monday through Thursday to bring you up-to-date information and perspective on financial markets. |
| 0:14.6 | Hello, welcome here to D.C. today. It is Wednesday afternoon, February the 7th. And good to be with you. Another nice, |
| 0:23.9 | positive trading day in markets today, frankly, without a lot of economic news. So I guess no news is |
| 0:30.6 | good news these days. Look, the fed's pretty clearly on hold for the time being. Earnings are coming out. |
| 0:37.2 | We're about 80% through Q4 earnings, and they're better than expected, you know, |
| 0:44.0 | growth rate of around 6% or so for the quarter. |
| 0:46.8 | And we're looking at, you know, an estimate at least of about 11% for 2024. |
| 0:51.3 | So all that to say, markets are are are doing fine. The volatility index continues |
| 0:58.0 | to move lower. It's just sort of a complacent market. VIX is in the 12s now. And we closed |
| 1:04.2 | almost in the in the 5,000 range on the S&P. The Dow was up, like I said, 156 points. Ten year was up a basis point or two |
| 1:12.4 | at 412. So all in all, I'll chalk it up to a decent date without a lot of economic data to |
| 1:18.8 | drive it. There was some deficit numbers that were out today that were largely expected. |
| 1:25.6 | We ran about a $62.2 billion deficit for the month of |
| 1:29.6 | December, which puts the total 2023 year right around $1.7 trillion. And what I wrote is just keep in |
| 1:37.8 | mind that's with full unemployment or full employment and earnings growth and positive GDP, real GDP of about 3.1%. |
| 1:47.6 | So it's pretty stunning numbers, really. |
| 1:51.0 | But there was, you know, a little bit of historical data, I would cite, you know, the Fed raising rates and then staying on hold before cutting, |
| 2:04.4 | technically, historically has actually been a little better for stock returns. |
| 2:08.5 | Usually they're starting to cut interest rates because economic data is driving them to try to, you know, |
| 2:14.1 | stimulate the economy and help things, help cushion the blow of what usually |
| 2:19.7 | is a declining economic environment. And that's not what we're seeing here. So, so not, |
| 2:24.5 | not all bad with, with the Fed sort of staying on hold for a little while. David had a nice |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Dividend Cafe - The Bahnsen Group, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Dividend Cafe - The Bahnsen Group and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.