Friends
Stocks rallied today, helped by a better than expected first look at 4th quarter GDP (3.2% vs. 3% consensus estimate), and a bevy of pretty darn good earnings reports. Traders seemed to direct their focus away from emerging market currency issues for one day and instead focus on a full day of earnings reports. I still contend that earnings season has not been that bad, but stocks in general were priced for perfection. It will be interesting to see what direction the market takes if the global macro environment settles down some.
For the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 109 points to close at 15,848. The S&P 500 was up 20 points to finish the day at 1794. Gold was down $20 to trade at $1242 per ounce, while oil was up $.59 to trade at $97.95 per barrel WTI.
It was nice to see stocks bounce back a little after the last couple of trading sessions. While today’s action may not have changed sentiment or the near term direction of the market, it was nice to see good earnings be rewarded and not ignored, or worse punished. We’ll see how the month ends tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
