The day after the Fed’s decision and the markets are rocking, although well off the highs.  The S&P500 is bumping up against resistance at 2,180, the number that many analyst are using as their year-end target.  

On the economic front, there was lots of data out today.  First, initial claims for the week ending in September 17, 2016, declined 8,000 to 252,000, the lowest level since April. The 4-week moving average also dipped 2,250 to 260,750.

Next, existing home sales dropped 0.9% to an annual rate of 5.33 million in August versus economists forecast of a 1.1% increase. The median home price dropped to $240.020.  Home sales were still up from a year ago, despite being at the second lowest pace of the year. 

Weighing on sales is the lack of housing inventory, which fell 3.3% to 2.04 million existing homes available for sale. Inventory has dropped 10.1% from a year ago (2.27 million) and has declined year-over-year for 15 straight months, and supply is now down to 4.6-months. 

Last, the US leading economic indicators (LEI) declined 0.2 percent in August to 124.1, weaker than expected, signaling risks to growth persist in the economy after earlier reports pointed to improvement in the second half of the year. July was revised upwardly to 0.5%.  The drop did not meet the consensus expectations of an unchanged reading. Positive financial indicators were offset by weakening of non-financial indicators with the ISM new orders index.  Coincident indicators increased 0.1% in August following a 0.3% rise in both June and July.  The data helps support the Fed’s decision and concerns that the economy softened during August.

Market internals are strongly biased to the upside with NYSE advancers running at 81% on 76% up volume. NASDAQ advancers come in at 69% with 200 stocks making new highs today. The Dow and S&P 500 have broken back above their 50-day moving averages at 18,300 and 2154, respectively with some conviction. Total volume is solid at midday.