The day after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s rare interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes aired, U.S. markets were relatively quiet with no major swings up or down. The interview (which can be found here) was intended to answer critics of the Fed’s $600 billion treasury buying plan for quantitative easing. Unfortunately, the interview seemed to have accomplished nothing as many major news sites spent Monday still discussing the potential merits and pitfalls of the plan. Some of the economic concerns Bernanke noted during his interview (concerns that prompted the plan for quantitative easing) were especially interesting in light of Friday’s disappointing jobs report and increased unemployment rate.
Concerns about the unemployment rate, tax cuts and the strength of the current economic recovery pushed many investors to a standstill today and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 19.9 points to 11,362.19. The Nasdaq rose 3.46 points to 2,594.92 and the S&P 500 fell 1.59 points to 1,223.12.
European and Asian markets were mixed on Monday with the UK’s FTSE 100 gaining .43 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite gaining .52 percent.
Stocks in the news: HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HBC), Wal Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT), Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE).
