Equities surging to record highs on Friday

Another day, another record highs. This could be put on a copy-paste rotation as markets are rallying each day, without any hesitation.

On Friday morning, the US futures were up half a percent, while EU bourses were set to open circa 1% higher. 

On Thursday, the second quarter’s US GDP came out at -31.7%, slightly better than expected, but it was also way worse than the first quarter’s number of -5%.

Nevertheless, it was very bullish for equities as a weak number, and especially this weak will lead to more stimulus, which was confirmed by the Fed yesterday. 

Markets were volatile after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell laid out a policy that aims for 2% inflation on average so that too low a pace would be followed by an effort to lift inflation “moderately above 2% for some time.” 

As the Fed has failed to lift inflation above the 2% target over the previous years, it might lead to further easing, which is in turn for stocks and bearish for the USD. Today, the dollar was down broadly, with the EURUSD pair rising toward yesterday’s highs of 1.19.