Friends
As the politicians and the media wrestle over the House’s proposed health care plan details, market participants seem unsure of just what to do with stocks. Are prices too high to buy? Is a major correction due at any moment? There seems to be a lot trepidation at the moment among traders, but the bears can’t seem to build any real momentum to the down side (at least to this point), while the bulls appear to be out of dry powder for the moment (or they just don’t want to deploy the dry powder that they have). The Fed may become the next catalyst, but that won’t be until next week. Famous hedge fund manager David Tepper will be on CNBC in the morning, and he’s been known to move markets for a day or two. Of course, Friday we get the non-farm payroll, which could/should give the Fed the comfort they need to move on rates next week.
As for today, well it was quiet but again with a negative bias. By the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 29 points to finish the day at 20,924. The S&P 500 was down 6 points to close at 2,368. Gold was down $10 to trade at $1,215 per ounce, while oil was down $.06 to trade at $53.14 per barrel WTI.
We get the ADP private payroll number tomorrow which should give a clue as to what Friday’s jobs number will look like (although it doesn’t always work that way), and then we’ll buckle in for Friday’s number. Until then, politics will surely grab the headlines, but traders don’t seem to be reacting much to those headlines lately.
Have a nice evening everyone.
