Friends
There is a lot going on. First, congratulations to the Astros for their first World Series win. Good for them and good for our great city. On the business front, we got a look at the Republican tax reform plan, and we also learned who will lead the Fed going forward. The new Fed Chair will be Jerome Powell, not a surprise and a person who was sort of down the middle with regards to hawkish vs dovish. Of course, yesterday the Fed decided to keep rates the same, at least until the December meeting.
Stocks were a bit soft early in the trading session when details of the proposed tax plan led to some disappointment and confusion, but rallied as the day went on. The reversal brought the Dow into positive territory as the industrial average finished the day up 81 points to close at 23,516. The S&P 500 was up a fraction to close at 2,579. Gold was down a fraction to trade at $1,276 per ounce, while oil was up $.31 to trade at $54.61 per barrel WTI.
On the earnings front, Facebook had great numbers, but management declared that they will be spending a lot of money to fight the fake news phenomenon, so its shares slumped a bit in today’s trading. After the close we get Apple’s numbers, and tomorrow morning we get the non-farm payroll number. Quite a busy week. We’ll let you know how the week finishes out tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Have a nice evening everyone.
