As of the close on Monday, June 4, the major stock indexes were treading water waiting to here what, if anything, the Federal Reserve might say after the Wednesday meeting of its interest-rate-setting body, the Open Market Committee. (No one really expects the Fed to actually do anything about the monthly schedule for bond purchases or about changing the benchmark interest rate now set at 0% to 0.25%.)
The Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 0.18% but the Dow Jones Industrial Average was off 0.25%. The NASDAQ Composite was up 0.74% but the small cap Russell 2000 was lower by 0.54%. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF was ahead 0.31%
The CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX) had moved higher by 4.35% to 16.33 as traders and investors decided they wanted to own a bit more of a hedge against downside volatility.
The 10-year Treasury yield continued its Friday rebound tacking on 5 basis points to 1.50%.
