Friends
There was nothing on the economic front that would necessarily affect the direction of stocks today. The Philly Fed Survey showed improvement in conditions in the mid-Atlantic manufacturing, but new orders were disappointing. The CPI number came in as expected, and the weekly jobless claims number was just better than last week. Nevertheless, stocks fell early and remained in negative territory all day.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 64 points to finish the day at 16,417. The S&P was down 2 to close at 1845. Gold was up $3 to trade at $1242 per ounce, while oil was down $.06 to trade at $94.11 per barrel WTI. That’s two down days and two up days for the week. Tomorrow will be the tie-breaker.
The banks had been the catalysts for the last two days of positive trading, but today two major banks disappointed and a major electronics retailer had a disastrous earnings report. Thus the tone was set by earnings releases. Expect volatility to continue as each day may be driven by that day’s reports. We’ll see how the week finishes tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
