The Dow Jones today is dropping in premarket hours after Fed Chair Janet Yellen announced the end of its massive financial stimulus program, which lead to a $4.5 trillion balance sheet. But investing giant Warren Buffett says he can see the Dow rising to 1 million...
Dow Jones futures are down 11 points today. The Fed also predicts three rate hikes coming in 2018.
Here are the numbers from Wednesday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:
Will the Dow Jones hit 1 million in the future? That's what Warren Buffett has predicted. During the 100th anniversary of Forbes on Tuesday evening, the chair of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) said that investors should buy stocks and hold them for the long term. "Being short America has been a loser's game. I predict to you it will continue to be a loser's game," Buffett said. He predicted the Dow could hit 1 million in 100 years.
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On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve concluded its two-day FOMC meeting in September. Following the event, the central bank signaled that it will begin unwinding its $4.5 trillion balance sheet starting in October. In addition, the Fed also suggested that it may enact its third interest rate hike in a year come December. The rate hike would come despite concerns about low inflation. The central bank cited low unemployment, strong business investment, and increased economic expansion as reasons why a rate hike is possible.
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that hackers may have made money by hacking into the agency's filing system and accessing critical information about companies. The SEC said that hackers were able to exploit a weakness in the EDGAR system, and the breach was discovered last year.
Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN) is about to make another big splash in the U.S. retail sector. According to reports, the firm is now in discussions with pharmacy benefits managers, which are in charge of negotiating prices with drug companies. Amazon is expected to aggressively build a pharmacy business in the future and add these services to its existing logistics chain. Shares CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. (NYSE: WBA) were off more than 2.8% on Wednesday afternoon.
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Crude oil prices fell in premarket hours on news that U.S. inventory levels pushed higher than expected last week. The Energy Information Administration announced Wednesday that inventories increased by 4.6 million barrels, topping analysts' estimates. It was the third straight week that inventories increased. In addition, U.S. oil production has recovered in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. The WTI crude oil price today fell 1.1%. Brent crude dipped 0.7%.
Three Stocks to Watch Today: GOOGL, MLHR, EFX
Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOGL) announced that it will spend $1.1 billion for the purchase of Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC. The deal will provide Google with HTC's intellectual property and an additional 2,000 engineers. The all-cash deal is aimed at bolstering Google's ongoing push into the smartphone industry. Many of the engineers who will be joining the company previously worked on the Pixel smartphone.
The problems continue to mount for credit-reporting giant Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX). In the wake of a hack that affected 143 million Americans, the firm is in hot water over how it helped consumers address the breach. According to reports, the company mistakenly misdirected consumers concerned about their financial security to a phishing website.
Shares of Herman Miller Inc. (Nasdaq: MLHR) were off more than 2.4% in premarket hours after the company fell short of Wall Street earnings expectations after the bell Wednesday. The firm reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.57 on top of $580.3 million in revenue. Wall Street had expected the firm to report EPS of $0.58 on top of $577.9 million.
Look for additional earnings reports from Sky Solar Holdings Ltd. (Nasdaq: SKYS) and Scholastic Corp. (Nasdaq: SCHL).
Thursday's U.S. Economic Calendar (all times EDT)
Jobless Claims at 8:30 a.m.
Philadelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey at 8:30 a.m.
FHFA House Price Index at 9 a.m.
Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index at 9:45 a.m.
Leading Indicators at 10 a.m.
EIA Natural Gas Report at 10:30 a.m.
Three-Month Bill Announcement at 11 a.m.
Six-Month Bill Announcement at 11 a.m.
Two-Year FRN Note Announcement at 11 a.m.
Two-Year Note Announcement at 11 a.m.
Five-Year Note Announcement at 11 a.m.
Seven-Year Note Announcement at 11 a.m.
10-Year TIPS Auction at 1 p.m.
Fed Balance Sheet at 4:30 p.m.
Money Supply at 4:30 p.m.
This Stock Is Beating the Markets 16 to 1 - and It's Just Getting Started
Investing should be profitable. But the average market index fund may hit 8% a year... if it's lucky.
A 401(k) or IRA may do 7%... if you've got good management. The average hedge fund... well, they've been clobbered lately.
Meanwhile, one of Keith Fitz-Gerald's recent picks in his Money Map Report is beating the markets 16 to 1. It's up more than 22% since June 20.
It's just the latest winner from Keith, who regularly finds stocks set to rise on high-profit trends.
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.