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Last week was an incredible week for the United States stock market. On Monday, I wrote a post on the anyoption.com blog that explained what could happen after Wednesday, which all depended on what the Federal Reserve would say. Well, to say the least, the Federal Reserve pleased investors with their announcement; leading to both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 reaching yet another record high and helping the NASDAQ recover from the worst day it’s seen since July 31st. Today, we’ll do a recap of what we saw in the markets last week and try to predict what we’ll see next week.

Market Performance Leading Up To Wednesday
As expected Monday wasn’t a great day for the markets. As investors anticipated what was going to happen on Wednesday, the markets closed pretty mixed with NASDAQ having the worst day it’s seen in more than a month. Internet stocks saw the worst of the sell-off which is why NASDAQ had such a bad day; falling from 4,567.45 to 4,502.11 by the close of the day. However, the index was able to recover a bit throughout Tuesday; ending the day at 4,553.96.

As far as the S&P 500 goes, Monday didn’t bode well for this index either. Starting the day at 1,986.04 we saw a relatively flat day with a slow, yet steady downward trend; closing the day at 1,981.93. However, as with NASDAQ, the index was able to make a bit of a recovery Tuesday closing at 1,999.30.

The DOW Jones Industrial Average was the only index that saw steady growth through Monday and Tuesday both. In that period, the DOW went from 16,988.76 to 17,131.01.

What Happened After The Big Day?
As mentioned above, Wednesday was a big day for investors; the Federal Reserve would make an announcement after the close of a two day meeting. The good news is, investors heard everything they wanted to with regard to interest rates causing the week to end well for all 3 major indices; with 2 of them, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closing the week at record highs.

Starting with the lowest performing index, the NASDAQ had an OK Wednesday, a strong Thursday, and a bit of a downward Friday; closing at 4,575.74 Wednesday, 4,608.11 Thursday, and 4,579.76 Friday. The second best performer was the S&P 500; closing at 2,003.07 Wednesday, a record high of 2,011.39 Thursday, and 2,010.40 Friday. Finally, the biggest winner, the DOW Jones Industrial average had an amazing end of the week; closing at 17,163.73 Wednesday, 17,332.56 Thursday, and 17,279.74 Friday.

What Can We Expect Going Into Next Week?
NASDAQ – When it comes to NASDAQ, it looks like a tossup. Although investors are happy about the thriving economy, and the news from the Federal Reserve, they’ve also started clearing their tech stocks to open money for investing into Alibaba which will trade on the NYSE. On the other hand, Yahoo! owns a big portion of Alibaba and it trades on NASDAQ. So, we’ll just have to see if Alibaba profits can build Yahoo! enough to keep NASDAQ on an upward trend.

S&P 500 & DOW Jones Industrial Average – With both the S&P 500 and the DOW Jones Industrial Average, I think we’re headed toward the same thing. After the Federal Reserve announcement Wednesday, investor confidence is up and both the S&P 500 and the DOW Jones Industrial Average should see a continuation of the bullish trends they have been seeing.

Final Thoughts
All in all, last week was a great week for the United States stock market. For the most part, I think we’ll continue to see this type of movement; however, as I always say no one can predict the future. We’ll simply have to wait for time to tell us what happens!

This post is written by Joshua Rodriguez for anyoption.com