Friends
As expected, because of the snow storm on the east coast, trading was light today and volatility was minimal. Once again we have somewhat of a mixed picture as the Dow seems to have a component or two that disappoints every day, dragging the average down, while the S&P (a much broader measure) holds up. As we have pointed out, as sloppy as trading has been for the first few weeks of trading in 2014, the S&P continues to hold together very near last year’s high.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 41 points to finish the day at 16,373. The S&P 500 was up 1 point to close at 1844. Gold was down $4 to trade at $1237 per ounce, while oil was up $1.80 to trade at $96.77 per barrel WTI.
As mentioned earlier, we seem to have a Dow stock or two affecting the direction of the index on a daily basis. Today, IBM was the culprit as it was down on a somewhat disappointing earnings report. The mixed results are sending a confusing message early on, but we expected a sloppy earnings season, and that’s what we are getting. We have two more solid weeks of earnings to navigate, so expect more mixed days ahead. We’ll keep you up to date.
Have a nice evening everyone.
