Friends
Stocks were very quiet on this first day of trading for the week. With very little news to affect trading, stocks meandered along all through the trading session. With the final numbers to earnings season tallying about a 5% increase in corporate earnings for the quarter (better than expected), and interest rates remaining low, market participants seem to be back to wondering if there are any other alternatives to stocks right now.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 23 points to close at 15,639. The S&P 500 was up 6 points to finish the day at 1767. Gold was up less than $1 to trade at $1313 per ounce, while oil was down $.15 to trade at $94.46 per barrel WTI.
On the economic calendar this week is the ISM non-manufacturing index, which will be released tomorrow. On Thursday we get final look at 2nd quarter revised GDP (old news) and the weekly jobless claims number, leading into Friday’s always important non-farm payroll number. Today, traders did not show much conviction. Let’s see how the rest of the week unfolds.
Have a nice evening everyone.
