S&P 500 Passively Performing Ahead of Fed Minutes

The S&P 500 is a little lower but trading within recent ranges under 4800 ahead of the Fed minutes release. Growth continues to underperform value, meaning the Nasdaq 100 is performing poorly while the Dow is holding up better.

US shares are mixed in the run-up to the release of the minutes from the hawkish December Fed meeting at 1900GMT on Wednesday. The S&P 500 is trading marginally softer just under 4790 but continues to trade within recent 4760-4820 ranges.

The tech/growth stocks continue to underperform, even though long-term US bond yields are taking a breather from their recent run of gains.

The Nasdaq 100 is as a result lower by a further 0.5% on Wednesday and trading in the 16.2K region having earlier tested 16.1K. The Dow continues to outperform amid an underlying bid in “value” equity sectors such as energy, industrials and materials. The index is up about 0.25% on Wednesday again a test of the 37000 level (which would mark fresh all-time highs) is highly possible.

Value stocks continue to perform well in wake of recent upside in long-term bond yields which seems to have signaled positivity about the state of the US economy and its outlook for 2022 and beyond.