The stock markets are up for Monday morning after closing low Friday evening. Could positive FOMC sentiment be the reason?

The Federal Open Market Committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday this week, and the expected report is a mildly positive one. Economists anticipate that the Federal Reserve will hold to the same policy of wait and see on interest rate cuts. They will likely not be overly pleased with the inflation report and will want to wait for a while longer to make those cuts. Those cuts might happen in June, according to some estimations.

However, the unemployment numbers should look good, with new jobs being created and joblessness decreasing. Nonfarm payrolls went up by 275,000 just last month, with wages increasing by 0.1%.

Economic growth is expected to be reported as solid, with unemployment levels not as good as might have been hoped for, but not as bad as they were this time last year. The jobless rate increased by 3.9% in February.

Inflation is not as rosy as expected, with CPI reports showing a higher than expected inflation rate. The inflation decline is not happening as quickly as the government anticipated, and the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell will likely comment on that on Wednesday.

Checking in with the Stock Market Indices

As of press time, all three major stock market indices were high, led by the Nasdaq Composite, which is up by 1.05%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.29% since yesterday, and the S&P 500 gained 0.79%.

Which stocks were helping these markets stay up? Walt Disney, Caterpillar, and Apple were the top ranking stocks on the Dow Jones, each up by more than 1%.

Over on the S&P 500, Tesla climbed by 5.85%, with Alphabet Inc. up by 4.94%.

On the Nasdaq Composite, Solidon technology led the way with a 78% increase, followed by Brand Engagement Network, up 67%.