Friends
It appears traders had a tryptophan hangover as we began the new trading week. Stocks had very little direction, and market participants seemed to have very little interest. We now head into the teeth of the holiday season which often is good for stocks, but this year has been anything but normal. Today’s new home sales number was hotter than expected, and as the week unfolds we’ll get a second look at 3rd quarter GDP, housing prices, pending home sales, consumer confidence, ISM Manufacturing and the weekly jobless claims number.
As for today, by the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 22 points to finish the day at 23,580. The S&P 500 was down a point to close at 2,601. Gold was up $6 to trade at $1,294 per ounce, while oil was down $1.03 to trade at $57.92 per barrel WTI.
Retailers seemed to have gotten off to a good holiday selling season with good numbers from Black Friday. Of course, all eyes will be on the politicians and the proposed tax reform bills, and later in December the Fed will meet one more time for 2017 and a rate hike is expected. Stay tuned, it should be a busy week.
Have a nice evening everyone.
