Investors really liked the minutes the Federal Reserve released yesterday about its latest meeting. How much did they like them? Enough that the stock market doubled its gains for the day after the minutes were released late in the afternoon. The Dow Jones industrial average was up 76 points on the day before the minutes were released - and then jumped another 153 points.
What got everyone all excited? It turns out the Fed had discussed the prospect of raising interest rates, particularly in light of the fact that inflation has been running below the Fed's target rate of 2 percent. No matter what other effects inflation has on the rest of the economy, it is generally good for stock prices.
The late-afternoon jump was remarkable also because of the way the markets have reacted to previous releases of Fed minutes. According to research from Bespoke Investment Group, on the last ten days in which the Fed has released minutes, the S&P 500 has dropped on eight of those days.
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