Friends
After last week’s beating, stocks staged a comeback today, as the bulls were buoyed by some decent bank earnings and decided to tiptoe back into some beaten up names. The retail sales number was slightly better than expected so perhaps a snapback from the weather woes is beginning to take shape.
By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 146 points to finish the day at 16,173. The S&P 500 was up 14 points to close at 1830. Gold was up $8 to trade at $1327 per ounce, while oil was up $.16 to trade at $103.58 per barrel WTI.
Earnings season will be in full swing over the next couple of weeks, and expectations are not real high. On the economic front we’ll get CPI and Empire State Manufacturing Survey tomorrow, Industrial Production and Housing Starts on Wednesday and Jobless Claims and Philly Fed on Thursday. The markets are closed on Friday when the Leading Indicators is released.
It’s a shortened week, but one with plenty of tradable news items. Let’s see how it plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
