March 17th 2014 – Market Brushes Off Crimea Vote To Close Higher

Stocks rallied today, with the Dow industrials rebounding after a five-day losing streak, as voting in Crimea passed without violence and after economic reports had U.S. manufacturing output jumping the most in six months in February.

On Monday, President Barack Obama imposed sanctions against Russian officials after voters in Crimea on Sunday endorsed separating from Ukraine to join Russia. The U.S. announcement came after the European Union announced travel bans and asset freezes on 21 people.

In a nationally televised news conference, Obama called the sanctions an initial step, and said the U.S. was ready to impose further sanctions should Russia escalate the situation.

Economic reports had U.S. industrial output rising in February; up 0.8 percent, and better than the 0.1 percent rise anticipated by economists polled by Reuters. And, the March Empire State Factory Index climbed to 5.61 in March after a reading of 4.48 the prior month.

Stocks maintained gains after a monthly measure of home builder confidence rose a tepid 1 point to 47 in March, with the latest reading still below 50, the line between positive and negative on the survey released by the National Association of Home Builders.

On Tuesday, the Federal Open Market Committee starts a two-day meeting that is widely expected to have monetary policy makers continuing to taper asset purchases. The FOMC has so far trimmed monthly bond buys to $65 billion from $85 billion in December.

Russian markets, which have been slammed so far this year by the rising tensions with the West over Ukraine, also showed signs of stabilizing. The main European markets all closed higher, while Asian markets ended mixed.

News Sources:  CNBC and CNN Money

My Market View:

You just never know how the market will respond sometimes.  With the vote being passed in Crimea in favour of re-joining Russia and sanctions being imposed by the western nations, you would expect another day of volatility towards the down side, not a big bounce we received.

Now the focus turns to the Fed meeting this week.  This will be Janet Yellen first chaired meeting.  I doubt she will do anything to spook the market, possibly even holding off on the taper this month??