July 29, 2020

Stocks opened higher Wednesday morning after Tuesday’s decline for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq, which were down 0.77%, 0.65% and 1.27%, respectively. Today the Federal Reserve is scheduled to deliver its decision on U.S. monetary policy as they conclude their two day July meeting.  Chairman Jerome Powell is set to address the media after the announcement.  Yesterday the Fed announced it would extend emergency lending programs through the end of the year. 

Today Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet with testify in a congressional hearing on antitrust practices.  For the past year, an antitrust panel of the House Judiciary Committee have investigated anti-competitive behavior and whether the companies have become too big.  Today’s hearing will end the investigation and the panel will issue a report detailing their findings. 

Earnings season continues today with Qualcom and Paypal set to report today.  General Motors reported a loss of 50 cents per share, better than the 1.77 per share that was expected. General Electric reported a loss of 15 cents per share more than the 10 cents per share that was forecasted.  General Electric stated the loss was due to pandemic related weakness caused the increase decline.