WHAT A WEEK

That was quite a week. These days a Federal Reserve (Fed) policy meeting alone gets a lot of headlines and has market participants on the edge of their seats. Add to that the second straight quarter of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth that exacerbated recession fears, the busiest week of earnings season, and important but sometimes under-the-radar inflation data, and last week was epic for market watchers. Here’s the good news: Markets liked it.

FED MEETING RECAP: MARKET GETS A WHIFF OF A PIVOT

Let’s start our recap of the epic week with the Fed meeting. Perhaps the market’s biggest fear has been that the Fed may overdo its tightening to fight inflation and send the economy into a painful recession, break something, or both. Last week’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, while broadly in line with expectations, did give the market a bit more confidence that nothing would break, while also seemingly maintaining its inflation-fighting credibility.