Stocks rallied to end the week after the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Index reading matched expectations. That will keep the Federal Reserve tightly focused on the employment picture. Investors will get more clarity on that when the September Jobs Report comes out on October 3.
The trend is still for stocks to move higher in the last quarter of the year. Corporations continue to report solid earnings, and investors will get more confirmation of that when the third-quarter earnings season kicks off in a couple of weeks.
Remember, earnings are the signal. The rest (the Fed, government shutdowns, etc.) is just noise. October tends to be unkind to stocks, but that should set up an opportunity to position yourself for what most analysts expect to be a strong year-end rally. The MarketBeat analysts are here to help. Here are some of our most popular stories from this week.
