Wall Street has been on a brisk recovery course

After the downswing to the end of the week, Wall Street has been on a brisk recovery course. The worries about monetary policy tightening up to an earlier interest rate turnaround had brought the Dow Jones index the highest loss in over seven months. But sentiment seemed to be turning back in favor of stocks. With the initiated discussion about a cutback in securities purchases and an earlier turnaround in interest rates, commodity prices fell and the dollar appreciated - both effects are depressing inflation expectations in the USA. "The market is focused on interest rate developments and Federal Reserve statements," said Nadege Dufosse of fund manager Candriam. And recent statements from Fed officials helped calm the situation and supported the stock market. New York Federal Reserve Governor John Williams reiterated the Federal Reserve's support for the economy and opposed a quick change in monetary policy. His Fed colleagues James Bullard and Rob Kaplan spoke of a further rise in inflation data, but at the same time emphasized the temporary nature of the development. The Dow Jones index gained 1.8 percent to 33,877 points, the S&P 500 and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 1.4 and 0.8 percent, respectively. There were 2,473 (Friday: 827) course winners and 864 (2,504) losers. 123 (124) titles closed unchanged. "For most investors across all asset classes there is simply no alternative to stocks," said Kleinwort Hambros' chief market strategist Fahad Kamal, summarizing the rally at the beginning of the week. At the start of the week, investors turned their focus back to companies that should benefit in particular from a broad economic recovery. The US banks were among the biggest price winners. JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Wells Fargo rose between 1.2 and 3.7 percent.