Wall Street took its revenge this Wednesday, and in fine style: buyers regained the upper hand after a "failed" end to the previous day's session, when US indices lost between -0.5% and -0.6% in the last hour.
A hiccup in the bullish momentum, the causes of which have not really been elucidated, in the absence of any notable market movers (figures or announcements by central bankers on Tuesday).

The 3 main indices are once again in a position to break absolute records this Thursday, to bring to a close in style a 1st quarter which, with the exception of the first week of the year, has been entirely marked by a funicular rise.
The rest can be summed up as a series of 10 out of 12 upward weeks (the 2 "missing" weeks ending in a horizontal consolidation, with the previous week's gains never compromised).
Wall Street has offered us a 22-week upward cycle, with gains of +25 to +28% over 5 months, including a +12% gain since January 5.

For once, the Dow Jones index outperformed both tech and the S&P with a 1.22% jump to 39,760pts, just 0.05% short of its March 21 closing record (39,781), and the 40,000pt target is well within reach for this Thursday at 9pm, the last session of the quarter (with a modest gain of +0.6%).
The Nasdaq came within 2pts (0.015%) of its last peak, gaining 0.5% to 16,399.
The S&P 500 set its 21st closing record with an advance of 0.86% to 5,248.5pts: the absolute zenith being 5.261 (set a week ago), beating it on Thursday evening - on the eve of a 3-day weekend on Wall Street - again looks like a mere formality.
This would make a 22nd annual record to cap the 22nd week of gains, a scenario bordering on perfection.... if valuations weren't so stretched: "Most of the performance of equity markets since the beginning of the year, and even over the last 18 months, has been due to the expansion of valuation multiples", point out JPMorgan's teams.

The S&P500 was propelled to new heights on March 27 by Marvell +5.9%, Intel +4.2%, On Semi-conductors +3.7%, NXP +2.7%, Apple +2.1%, Tesla +1.2%, AMD +1%.
The broad index was also buoyed by handsome gains on regional banks amid a slight easing of US long rates (Boston Property +5.1%, Zions Bancorp +4.8%, Regions Financial +4%, Keycorp +3.9%, Bank of America +2%.
Note the -2.5% pullback on Nvidia, which nonetheless remains above $900.

Investors now seem to be waiting for further signs of good health in the US economy and confirmation that inflation is easing, in order to continue the upward movement that has been underway since mid-autumn.

With this in mind, the markets will turn their attention on Friday to US household income and spending statistics, which will be accompanied by the 'PCE' component of prices, the Fed's preferred measure of inflation.
Meanwhile, macro news was summed up by data published by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA): US crude oil inventories stood at 448.2 million barrels for the week ending March 18, up 3.2 million barrels on the previous week's level.

In detail, inventories of distillate products - including heating oil - fell by 1.2 million barrels, while gasoline stocks rose by 1.3 million barrels, again compared with the previous week, continues the agency.

Finally, the EIA points out that refineries operated at 88.7% of their operational capacity during the same week, with average production of 9.2 million barrels/day.

On the bond front, the session proved favorable for T-Bonds, with -5pts to 4.180%, and the same was true for oil, with a +0.1% rise in 'WTI' to $81.7 a barrel, as well as 'Brent' ($86.1 in London).

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