The markets were lower today after the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percent. The Fed also signaled that they may include more interest rate hikes than expected before the year is up. Most believe that a September rate hike is now all but certain.
The Dow 30 closed lower on the day by 116, the S&P 500 closed down 11, and the Nasdaq 100 closed lower by only 8 thanks to strong moves by Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
The bump in Netflix today followed the approval of the AT&T (NYSE: T) and Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) merger, which sent analysts scrambling to understand the new valuations in competing names. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) also came out with a new, higher price target of $490 for Netflix, now the highest of all analysts covering the company. The approval also gave new confidence that Disney (NYSE: DIS) deal with Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA), worth $52.4 billion, would also be approved.
H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) also made headlines today after plummeting 18% as the company announced forward guidance well below expectations. While earnings beat easily in the first quarter - usually the busiest quarter of the year - the company said they would need to be more aggressive on pricing going forward since the tax code is now simpler. Technical traders noted the break below 8 months of support as a severe sell signal.
In other news, the consumer price index, a popular measure of inflation that tracks the change in the price of finished goods sold by producers, moved to 2.8%, its biggest shift since 2012. Analysts claim that number would have been much higher had the rapidly rising price of gasoline had not slowed recently.