When she was chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen’s words would often move stocks. Well, she was at it again today when in her Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary she told Congress to go big in coronavirus relief and economic aid.
Stocks, which had been trading significantly lower in the morning hours abruptly reversed direction in the afternoon session. The Standard & Poor’s 500 had been down 0.33% at 11:18 a.m. New York time, but closed up 0.81%.
The biggest about face moves came in 1) high risk momentum stocks, and 2) solar and other renewable stocks that have rallied hard on the prospects of a Biden Presidency.
For example, Goldman Sachs Acquisition Holding II (GSAH), a SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) that has been trading higher on speculation that company will acquire something “cool” was flat until it took off at 1:10 p.m. The company, at the moment a blind pool sitting on a bunch of cash, finished the day up 8.93%.
On the renewable energy front, SMOG, the VanEck Low Carbon Energy ETF, traded flat until, again, near 1 p.m. The ETF closed up 3.50% on the day. Recently hot solar stocks Enphase (ENPH) and Solar Edge (SEDG) closed up 5.61% and 4.53%, respectively.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Averaged closed higher by 0.38%.
The technology heavy NASDAQ Composite finished ahead 1.53% and the NASDAQ 100 was up 1.50% at the close.
The Russell 2000 small cap index ended higher by 1.32%.
The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM) closed up 1.66% on the day.
