Friends
Stocks drifted into negative territory around the mid-point of the trading session, then spent the rest of the afternoon easing slightly lower. Today’s economic data was less than inspiring as the Chicago PMI was awful, showing contraction in November. The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Survey, while bad, was at least better than expected. Finally, the Pending Home Sales Index continues to point to a somewhat slow month or two ahead. This is a week with a full calendar of economic data, including Friday’s jobs report, so the Fed will have a lot to watch as they prepare for this month’s meeting.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 78 points to finish the day at 17,719. The S&P 500 was down 9 points to close at 2080. Gold was up $8 to trade at $1064 per ounce, while oil was down $.11 to trade at $41.60 per barrel WTI.
As for the month of November, it was really more of the same. Yes, both the Dow and the S&P 500 were up slightly for the month (and I mean slightly), but YTD the familiar theme continues – The Dow is down slightly for the year, while the S&P is up slightly for the year. Speaking of the S&P 500 (and remember that it is an index comprised of 500 companies) as of a week ago, the top 10 stocks in the index were up 13.9%, while the other 490 stocks in the index were down 5.8%. I’ll let you chew on that overnight and we’ll be back at it tomorrow.
Have a nice evening everyone, and hopefully we’ll see you at the open house tomorrow.
