Tuesday, September 11, 2012
We will likely see another calm trading session today ahead of a
number of market-moving developments on deck for the rest of the
week. The most important of these upcoming developments is the Fed
announcement on Thursday after the two-day FOMC meeting. Wednesday
brings the German Constitutional Court ruling on the
constitutionality of the European Stability Mechanism, the 500
billion euros permanent Euro-zone bailout fund. The Dutch
parliamentary elections on Wednesday are expected to bring a
Euro-zone friendly government in power.
The Fed is widely expected to come through with another round of
bond purchases on Thursday, even though most serious people doubt
the move's relevance to current ground realities. The stock market
loves more monetary stimulus and has been pushing higher all summer
in anticipation of more Fed support. But QE3 will do little to
improve the nation's economic fortunes as monetary conditions
already remain quite favorable. In fact, the expected launch of
Apple's (
AAPL
) iPhone 5 on Wednesday may have more positive impact on consumer
spending in the final quarter of this year than anything the Fed
could come up with on Thursday. The issues facing the U.S. economy
are beyond the Fed's control, be they domestic fiscal uncertainties
or international growth questions.
In corporate news,
McDonald's (
MCD
)
August same-store sales numbers came in modestly lower than
expected, with weakness in the U.S. and Europe getting offset by
strength elsewhere. The fast-food chain's August comps
represented a rebound from July, which was the weakest in nine
years. In other news,
Casey's General Stores
(
CASY
) came out with better than expected quarterly results.
Sheraz Mian
Director of Research
APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report
CASEYS GEN STRS (CASY): Free Stock Analysis
Report
MCDONALDS CORP (MCD): Free Stock Analysis
Report
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