Friends
The volatility was once again extraordinary today, but within a slightly tighter range than the last couple of days. Yes, we only had about a 500 point trading range today, not the 1000 point range or more that we saw on Monday and Tuesday. So I guess you could say things are calming down (insert laughing emoji). Spooked by a difficult treasury auction, stocks gave up a nice 300 point midday rally, several times during the last few hours of trading. The Dow would rally, then retreat all the way back to even. The Nasdaq, struggling throughout the day would fight its way back towards even only to retreat time and time again. In the end, each and every rally failed.
When it was all said and done, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 19 points to close at 24,893. The S&P 500 was down 13 points to finish the day at 2,681. Gold was down $12 to trade at $1,317 per ounce, while oil was down $1.61 to trade at $61.78 per barrel WTI.
Yes, the volatility is likely to continue, but hopefully we can narrow the range of motion over time. As I indicated yesterday, it would not be unhealthy to test Monday’s low a couple of times to establish some sort of bottom to this move. If those lows get violated and do not hold, then we could be in for more damage. If they hold then we might be able to rebuild the up move. In the meantime, corporate earnings continue to shine but they are taking a back seat to the dynamics of the stock market in general. Let’s see how the rest of the week plays out.
Have a nice evening everyone.
