Friends
Buoyed by some better than expected earnings reports from the likes of 3M and Caterpillar, stocks rallied once again in early morning trading and tacked on more gains as the afternoon wore on. Just about an hour before the end of trading, another Ebola story hit the market and stocks gave back some of the gains, but nevertheless it was another good day for the bulls. We mentioned last week that earnings had to help stem the negative tide, and for the most part that has been the case (despite disappointments from IBM, Coca-Cola and McDonalds).
At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 216 points to finish the day at 16,677. The S&P 500 was up 23 points to close at 1950. Gold was down $12 to trade at $1233 per ounce, while oil was up $1.42 to trade at $81.94.
As quickly as support levels were wiped away on the way down over the past couple of weeks, we seem to be taking out resistance levels just as quickly on the way back up. The indices are recapturing the 100 and 200 day moving averages, so it seems much of the technical damage is being repaired rather nicely. Of course, as we have seen, this market is susceptible to headlines, which continuously adds to the volatility. Let’s see how the week ends tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone.
